Shijo-Tsushin
Q:Have there been any changes in the attitudes of "kikoku shijo" towards Japanese society and about themselves over the past 20 years? 10 years? or 5 years?
A:Up to about a decade ago when the bubble economy began in Japan, the "kikokushijo" were regarded as people who have lost their Japanese attitudes, and were not welcome in most jobs. Sometimes it was better for the kikokushijo to hide their backgrounds, and so had to keep up their pride in deep closets. Even at schools, they were pupils who had to be "treated" for their misgivings. There are some writings from 20 years ago that state a kikokushijo to be "heavily suffering", so in need of an "intensive treatment", all using medical metaphors.
Then came the time when "bilin-gals" were at fad. Kikokushijo girls were often seen appearing on media, and they conveyed the image of Americanized and therefore modernized young ladies who are fluent in English, and were idolized. It coincided with the bubble economy, and businesses were eager to hire the "spearheads for their international development" of their companies, and while most college graduates were quickly hired by major companies, the kikokushijo were the first among them to be hunted down. Being a kikokushijo had then become a "brand" that everyone envies. In the schools, they were seen as "teachers" in the efforts to "internationalize" the students, and were given chances to speak in front of the whole student body, on assemblies and other occasions, but not many of the kikokushijo themselves welcomed the change in schools. To stand out in a group and be envied poses a psychological difficulty as much as being despised.
Now that the bubble is collapsed, it seems that the kikokushijo are neither envied nor despised. In the schools, the kikokushijo are still regarded as "special" in some way, but it's become a rather common phenomena, and the teachers as well as fellow students are not too much "afraid" to receive a transfer student from abroad, at least where it's common; i.e., in metro area.
The changes seem to be one that should be welcomed. Yet I still have a feeling that between individuals, the kikokushijo still are regarded as "not exactly the same", and are either envied, despised, criticized behind the back, given worse or better prestige, jealousied, patronized, exalted, or idolized, depending on the characters of those involved. The kikokushijo are still not the "same" as others.
A:While the treatment to the kikokushijo have changed in our society, there was another change happening in the experiences of the "kaigaishijo" themselves. I mean their experiences while abroad. As more full-time Japanese schools and "juku's" (cramming schools to prepare children for the infamous entrance examinations) sprang up abroad, the expectation of the parents changed from "to be accepted in any school at return" to "to be accepted into better schools", and the pressure of the entrance exams got heavier. This was also fueled by the opening of more schools for kikokushijo.
Today, in places where there are a lot of kaigaishijo living, the children are facing the pressure of the entrance exams at least as much as at home. This has been resulting in lesser exposure to the local societies and languages, and the kaigaishijo are much less "special" or different from other children who have never been outside, to begin with.
One prediction is that there will be more diversification within the kikokushijo group, that could be defined by the length of stay, the ages of the children while abroad, the number/concentration of Japanese children in the area where they lived, the educational policies of the family, and so on. Some of them bring back a very different lifestyle, attitude, value system, academic achievement, while others may be very similar to an average child who's never been out of this country. The term "kikokushijo" would then be insignificant, and perhaps another term would be invented to label those who are very different and regarded as in need of a special treatment, or to stigmatize and/or exalted. It is already quite often heard that a person who's returned from abroad is "not like a kikokushijo". Being a "kikokushijo" has already developed a certain stereotype for itself, and as someone can be labeled simply by their experience of having lived abroad as being a kikokushijo, he or she might suffer that the "characteristics of being a stereotypical kikokushijo" does not come automatic. This has led to a new phenomena in which the kikokushijo by definition (not by character) tries to hide the experience of having been abroad and deny the fact that he or she is a kikokushijo. Once upon a time, the same attitude of hiding was simply to avoid being stigmatized for not being a typical Japanese, but nowadays, it is to avoid being required to act like a typical and exalted kikokushijo.
My personal opinion tends to shift to a gloomy side. As a kikokushijo who's returned in the olden days, and regarded as one who's been here in the dark days, what I wanted was that the Japanese society be open to different breeds of people. I wanted it to be more diverse, heterogeneous, and more multi-cultural. I hoped that the kikokushijo who are "different and special" should become a factor to open up the homogeneity of this society. While it is true that the kikokushijo are regarded as less special in this era, that is not because the society has become more open-minded, but because the kikokushijo themselves are less special. I believe that unless the trend of how the kaigaishijo are raised abroad should reverse and give more importance to bringing back what is impossible to breed at home, the battle to open up this society would fall more and more on genuine(?) foreigners. The kikokushijo had a chance. It was important that they should have kept up their differences even while they were required to adapt to the Japanese ways. They were Japanese by any external definition other than eloquence in foreign languages and the fact that they've spent some of their youth abroad, but they were also different in many other ways. By being ambivalent in such a way, they had a chance to broaden the definition of "being Japanese". I am looking forward to the day when "being a Japanese" can be as diverse as "being a human", but that is yet to come.
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