TOKYO – Education support groups have urged educators to take action against discrimination against children with foreign roots, warning about the potential spread of the “Japanese First” political rhetoric of the rightwing populist Sanseito party in schools.
With the party gaining support among young people and winning several seats in last month’s House of Councillors election, a nationwide group composed of teachers and other educators has issued a statement to protest that the slogan is discriminatory and may even normalize such marginalizing rhetoric.
The slogan has been widely criticized as being xenophobic.
In the statement released during the group’s gathering in Okayama in western Japan earlier this month, the group urged education boards across the country to take steps to prevent discrimination.
The group carries out activities to support pupils and students of foreign nationality or roots as well as their parents.
Metanoia, a nonprofit organization which operates Japanese language classes in areas such as Saitama Prefecture’s Kawaguchi, home to many foreign residents, released a set of guidelines on how to protect children from being discriminated against.
The NPO said that in the event a child makes an insensitive remark, parents and teachers should not only explain to the child that it was discriminatory, but take further steps, such as taking note of the comment for future discussions and review.
The group, on its website posted last week, also advised the educators to empathize with and offer words of comfort to a child who has been bullied over their ethnicity.
Atsushi Funachi, head of the group, expressed concern that children who have experienced discrimination at elementary school will continue to remember the pain as they get older and move on to new schools.
Even before the election, there had been reports of incidents in which children with foreign roots have been bullied. In one instance, a Kurdish child was told to “go back” to their country.
Many Kurdish people live in Kawaguchi and their large presence in the community has at times made them a target of hate speech.
“We hope the idea of people of different origins living side by side and having respect for each other spread,” a Metanoia official said.