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Paper short abstract

This study is an ethnography conducted in a public school ''Kokugo'' classroom. The presenter, a Japan-born teacher with a foreign background, uses this perspective to examine children’s theatrical creative worlds and explore how ''Kokugo'' can be opened to genuine diversity.

Paper long abstract

This study investigates how children actively open and shape their learning in ''Kokugo'' (national language education) classes through theater practices, highlighting child-centered learning, creativity, and cultural creation. The field is a public school ''Kokugo'' classroom in Yokohama, where contemporary national language education often emphasizes finding “correct answers” and mastering prescribed skills. Although child-centered learning is officially encouraged, subtle pressures toward conformity have been noted. As a public school teacher, I have aimed to design lessons where children themselves actively open and shape their learning, fostering imaginative and critical engagement.

Born and raised in Japan, yet as a teacher with a foreign background, I utilize both insider and outsider perspectives to anthropologically examine classroom dynamics. Using ethnographic methods, I document children collaboratively writing, rehearsing, and performing scripts, capturing dialogues, conflicts, and creative processes. In these activities, children fuse European and other linguistic folktales, Japanese folktales, and contemporary pop culture to produce original plays. Their creative processes reveal critical perspectives on society and unique imaginative worlds, and also led me to a rediscovery of Shoyo Tsubouchi’s philosophy of children’s theater, which sought the development of Japanese culture and children’s psychological growth. My own reflections, moments of struggle, and moments of resonance are recorded alongside their cultural creation.

In this classroom, children reinterpret the world and construct narratives with their own hands. Walking alongside them, I reflect on the future of diversity, the role of national language education in fostering open-minded learning, and the human capacity to inhabit and engage with fictional worlds. Ultimately, through the stories of the children and myself, this study demonstrates a challenge to open ''Kokugo'' to genuine diversity, emphasizing the transformative potential of imagination, creativity, child-centered learning, cultural creation, and theater practice.

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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how Japan’s growing cultural diversity affects education, focusing on bicultural children and their families. Based on a study of the French international school in Kyoto, it explores parental choices, tensions, and strategies in navigating national and international schooling.

Paper long abstract

Over the past few decades, successive Japanese governments have implemented policies aimed at opening Japanese society to long-term immigration, including the introduction of various types of skilled professional visa, increasing the number of international students who can access the labour market and transition to long-term residence, and creating opportunities for naturalisation. These policies have contributed to a steady increase in the number of foreign residents in Japan as well as in international marriages. As a result, a sizeable group of Japanese citizens with one foreign parent has emerged. Often informally referred to as hafu, these children are born and raised in Japan, consider it their native country, and speak Japanese as their first—and sometimes only—language. Nevertheless, they are frequently treated as foreigners or outsiders within their own society.

This situation is particularly problematic in the context of schooling, as the Japanese education system continues to struggle to adapt to increasing cultural diversification and to provide an inclusive environment for all children. In response, some families turn to alternative educational pathways, notably international schools. These institutions function as spaces of intensive cultural contact and as sites where tensions within bicultural families become visible—tensions related to children’s identity formation, the values conveyed through education, the challenges and limitations of alternative schooling compared to the Japanese model, and the potential impact of these choices on children’s future trajectories.

Drawing on a case study of a small international school in Kyoto that caters primarily to children from Franco-Japanese families, this paper examines the implications of Japan’s cultural diversification in the field of education. Focusing on parents’ perspectives, it analyses their views on international education, the choices they face, the tensions these choices create within families, and the strategies they develop to support their children’s ability to navigate and succeed within two cultures.

Key words: Japan, migration, international school, secondary education, biculturalism

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This research examines well-being and happiness among junior high school students in Tokyo through ethnographic fieldwork, highlighting how these socio-culturally embedded experiences are shaped (or not) by proximity to dominant norms, where new dimensions of happiness and well-being may emerge.

Paper long abstract

This research focuses on investigating the educational settings of the Japanese context, and how well-being and happiness as an implicit or stated educational goal is practiced within public, private, and national schools. In the broader context of Japanese education, issues such as school nonattendance (futōkō), bullying (ijime), mental health challenges, and stress from entrance examinations are prominent (Sugimoto, 2021). The neoliberal emphasis on academic achievement manifested through the expansion of the cram school (juku) industry, the use of deviation scores (hensachi), and intensified competition and stratification (Cave, 2016; Slater, 2014; Sugimoto, 2021) contributes to creating norms of well-being as being to succeed within these objectives. Specifically, it explores how junior high school students in Tokyo experience (or not) happiness through social interactions within and outside classroom settings. This is analyzed through Bourdieu’s concept of habitus (Bourdieu, 1986), Foucault’s notion of discursive practices (Hall, 2001), and Ingold’s framework of doing and undergoing (Ingold, 2017). It shows that these norms not only define the conditions for well-being and happiness but also implicitly determine who is deemed eligible to attain them within dominant educational and social discourses. In particular, this research highlights how junior high school students experience the adolescent period with many significant transitions (Letendre & Fukuzawa, 2013), and how they navigate these tensions between personal and social level. The value of happiness has been assessed through positivist-oriented publications such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Better Life Index and the World Happiness Report (Helliwell et al., 2012, as cited in Manzenreiter & Holthus, 2017). These data remain useful for policy-making, yet essentialist claims that happiness is a universal, uniform experience easily captured by quantitative measures risk being overly reductive. Therefore, this research adopts a qualitative approach, using ethnographic fieldwork to explore how the concept of well-being and happiness varies across cultural contexts, is shaped by diverse social and moral frameworks, and how it is expressed in everyday life of Japanese junior high school students. It provides insights into how new forms of well-being and happiness may emerge in the educational context through the narratives of students and teachers.

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Paper short abstract

This presentation explores the experiences of three Japanese early-career English teachers who are grappling with the demands and pressures of their roles. The findings reveal the physical and mental toll of teaching. Suggestions are made for improving the teacher induction and support structure.

Paper long abstract

Teacher burnout has become an increasingly urgent issue in Japan, with severe implications for both educators’ well-being and the quality of education. Despite calls for reform from the Japan Teachers’ Union (TUJ), which highlights the need for comprehensive changes to address the growing teacher shortage, the situation remains critical. This presentation explores the experiences of three Japanese early-career English teachers who are grappling with the demands and pressures of their roles. Through online questionnaires and in-depth interviews data were collected and used to analyse the challenges faced by novice teachers. Thematic analysis was employed to identify recurring issues, revealing the harsh reality these educators encounter on a daily basis. The findings reveal the physical, emotional, and mental toll of teaching, including long working hours, high expectations, and an inadequate support system. Not only do teachers face the stress of managing classrooms and lesson plans, but they also experience significant isolation and feelings of burnout. In response, this presentation offers suggestions for improving teacher induction and support mechanisms, proposing strategies to better equip early-career educators for the challenges they face. By addressing these issues, the hope is to reduce burnout and turnover rates, ensuring that teachers are given the resources and backing they need to thrive in their roles.