Existing in Japanese society (part 2): inclusion of the very young

Anne-Lise Mithout, Senior Lecturer, Université Paris-Cité
"Growing up without family support: young people taken into care by child welfare in Japan"

Child welfare takes care of children who cannot live with their families. Today, most of these children are not orphans, but are the subject of placement measures due to difficulties linked to their family home (parents' economic difficulties or health problems, situations of abuse, etc.). They are then taken in either by a foster family (satooya) or an institution (jidô yôgo shisetsu). But how do social protection systems support these young people? To what extent do they compensate for the social disadvantage linked to the absence of family support or, conversely, do they generate new forms of disadvantage? 
This presentation is based on a field survey conducted in 2025. It will show that the child welfare sector has undergone major transformations in recent years, aimed at bringing care arrangements closer to an idealized "family" framework, but that inequalities remain numerous between children in care and other children.

Natsuki Kawasaki, PhD student (Inalco-IFRAE), Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès
"Between local autonomy and national guarantees: Taking care of pupils with linguistic and cultural difficulties in Meguro district in the context of educational decentralization"

The aim of this presentation is to analyze how, in the context of educational decentralization in Japan, pupils with "Linguistic and Cultural Difficulty " (DLC), identified as "in need of Japanese language instruction", are taken care of at local level. Since the 1990s, decentralization reforms and the reorganization of public finances have increased local authorities' room for maneuver in the concrete organization of educational action, while making this action dependent on their financial capacity and political priorities. 
In such a situation, the teaching of Japanese can no longer be seen as a mere additional support "desirable if it exists", but as a basic educational service, essential to enable DLC students to participate in classes and access basic learning opportunities. In this presentation, we will show the extent to which the possibility of benefiting from this Japanese language teaching is influenced by differences in institutional and organizational arrangements between local authorities.
We will draw primarily on a case study of Meguro (Tokyo) district. We will mobilize the analysis of public documents produced by the local education committee and administration, as well as qualitative materials gathered from actors involved in Japanese language teaching, in order to grasp the overall logic of the scheme. Where necessary, other Japanese local authorities will be mobilized for occasional comparison, insofar as the available sources allow.
The initial elements of analysis suggest that, in a context of strong financial capacity and a declared commitment to "education for multicultural cohabitation", the Meguro district tends to explicitly include Japanese language teaching in its educational guidelines and to structure a relatively coherent scheme (dedicated posts, cooperation with outside contributors, etc.). At the same time, the study highlights a number of weaknesses specific to a decentralized system, linked in particular to the sustainability of the system, the handling of minority situations with very small numbers, and the political visibility of these issues. In conclusion, the paper will discuss how the teaching of Japanese, envisaged as a basic educational service, should be distributed between the different levels of governance (State, départements, communes) in order to reconcile margins for local initiative and minimum guarantees for the educational inclusion of DLC pupils.

Distance participation possible. 
Contact the organizers:

Christian GALAN View e-mail

Marine DEPLECHIN View e-mail