Japan grows more considerate to foreign residents with children

From Kumamoto to Hokkaido, schools and towns help build camaraderie

Foreign Kids Top 2024-12

Elementary school children from Taiwan learn from a Canadian teacher at Kyushu Lutheran International School in Kumamoto. (Photo by Rie Ishii)

RIE ISHII, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Japan is adapting to the educational and child-rearing needs of Taiwanese, Indians, Bangladeshis and other foreigners living in Japan, whose economy and society are demanding a more cosmopolitan population.

This is taking place in the city of Kumamoto, near where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is building a factory. At the Primary School Division of Kyushu Lutheran International School, children raise their tablet computers toward a board on which a Canadian teacher had written, "If you could invent one thing to help the environment, what would it be and why?" The same question but written in traditional Chinese appears on the tablets. With the assistance of the translation function, the children begin to jot down their answers in English.

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