Japanese Immigrant and Transient Students in the United States

This chapter examines the educational trends and issues of Japanese “overseas children�? (kaigaishijo) in general, and in particular those residing in the United States. The Japanese children discussed here are temporary sojourners, or transients living abroad with their parents who intend to return to Japan in the future. Many of these children indeed return home, and when they do, they are usually categorized as “returnee children�? (kikokushijo). Since the 1960s and 1970s, educational matters concerning both Japanese overseas children and returnee children have caught the attention of the Japanese public and media, including educational researchers and practitioners; however, to date, the research has (almost exclusively) focused on returnee rather than overseas children.1 Little is known about these children’s educational experiences abroad, or the diversity of their experiences as they attend schools in structurally and contingently varied contexts. There is a need, then, for a close examination of the overseas children’s education at both macro (quantitative) and micro (qualitative) levels.