8,000 Children with Foreign Nationalities May not Have Attended School

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, April 24, 2023

A total of 8,183 children with foreign nationalities residing in Japan may not have been enrolled in elementary or junior high school as of May last year, according to a survey by the education ministry.

This would account for about 6% of all children with foreign nationalities who are eligible for elementary and junior high school education in Japan, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said Saturday.

Even though the number of such children had dropped 18.5% from 10,046 in the previous survey conducted in the 2021 academic year, the ministry said further efforts are necessary to improve the situation.

The survey was conducted by asking 1,741 municipal boards of education nationwide about school enrollment as of May 1, 2022. A total of 136,923 children with foreign nationalities who are elementary and junior high school age were found to be listed on the Basic Resident Registration records.

Of them, 778 were confirmed as not attending school, and 6,675 children were unable to be reached.

In addition, 730 children were listed in the Basic Resident Registration records, but their local boards of education were not aware of them. This makes it likely that they were also not attending school.

Children with foreign nationalities are not required to attend school in Japan, but public elementary and junior high schools accept them free of charge, just like Japanese children, if their guardians wish it.

“Living in Japan, children need to receive some form of education,” said a ministry official. “We hope that each local government will ascertain the situation and make efforts to encourage school enrollment.”