Shijo-Tsushin #8 September 1996

'Returnee' Students or Transculturalists?

by Monica Skidzun

I first became interested in cross-cultural studies and education in my final year at university. I conducted a short research on Japanese children living in my hometown Perth, Western Australia. My research focussed on the many cultural, social and educational adaptations Japanese children and their parents had to go through in a new environment. In order to do so, it was important to examine the various differences between life in Japan and Australia. Although my final dissertation concentrated on the situation of Japanese children in Australia, I ended up asking the question: What happens to these Japanese children when they return to Japan? This was when I first learnt the word 'kikokushijo'.

The most commonly used English equivalent of kikokushijo, the term 'returnee' seemed a little odd to me. In fact, entering 'returnee' into the library computers gave me very little information. Who invented this word? Do 'returnee' students only exist in Japan? Since coming to Japan to begin researching for my Masters thesis, I have learnt many other words to explain the phenomenon of kikokushijo. Reverse culture shock is one term I had already become familiar with but terms such as acculturation and transcultural helped me to understand more about why kikokushijo exist. And yes, such people exist in other countries too; they just don't have a particular label to explain their 'transcultural status' to others.

This is probably the reason why kikokushijo gather so much international attention; not so much from educators or cross-culturalists but from Japanologists who are keen to see the returnee phenomenon as another example of Japan's 'homogeneous society', 'standardised education' and 'mistrust of all things foreign'. I believe that the growing number of young Japanese who live overseas are worthy of better and positive attention. I believe that an overseas experience can be a source of overcoming fear of other cultures, languages and people. There are so many people in the world that have never left their own country and have not experienced another culture. In that sense, returnee students are a very lucky group of young people for they have had the chance to go overseas and unlike tourists, they have truly lived another lifestyle.