Educaonal Challenges of a Japanese-Filipino Child in a Japanese Classroom Melvin Jabar Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University antpsych@yahoo.com Research on bicultural children remains limited. Little is particularly known about their educational experiences. Therefore, this article aims at addressing such research gap. In its entirety, this research piece describes the lived experiences of a bicultural child as he immersed himself in the Japanese educational system. Its sole purpose is to highlight the problems of the bicultural child which may provide school personnel insights on how best they can help bicultural and immigrant children adjust. While this paper only tackles one specific subject, this includes discussions on how the child’s school and mother responded to his educational experiences. Thus, it provides a detailed exposition reflecting his school challenges and a comprehensive and in-depth discussion on Japan’s elementary education. The data for this article were drawn from my field work in a Japanese elementary school which is the initial phase of my doctoral dissertation on Japanese-Filipino children’s educational outcomes and experiences in Japan. The child’s school challenges revolved around the issues of language, classroom discipline and practices, and parent-school relationships. Keyword: Japanese-Filipino children, educational challenges, elementary education, Japanese education The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher 20:2 (2011), pp. 364-372 Copyright © 2011 De La Salle University, Philippines “The bicultural child is plunged alternately into several cultural baths and each of them colors him or her to a certain extent.” Barbara, A. (1989, p. 139) “Bicultural” is a term used to describe the offspring of couples in intercultural marriages. Other scholars, however, use the terms “biethnic” (Nash, 1995; Oikawa & Yoshida, 2007), “biracial” (Nash, 1995; Oikawa & Yoshida, 2007; Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2005), “mixed heritage” (Tikly, Caballero, Haynes, & Hill, 2004), and “multiracial” (Nakazawa, 2003; Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2005). In Japan, they are informally referred to as “haafu” (half) or “daburu” (double) (Kamada, 2006; Oikawa & Yoshida, 2007). Parallel to the growing number of international marriages in Japan is also the increasing number of bicultural children. In 2001 alone, there were about 22,000 births from women of bicultural unions in Japan (Tokyo English Life Line, 2003). Researches on bicultural children are very limited. Little is particularly known about their educational experiences. Therefore, this present article aims at addressing such research gap. In the United States, studies had focused on identity issues (e.g., Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2005) and bilingualism (e.g., Soto, 2002). In England, one quantitative research (Tikly et al., 2004) looked at the educational needs of “mixed heritage” children (White/Black Caribbean, White/Black African, and White/Asian); however, this dealt more on the barriers to academic achievement rather than describing lived experiences. In Japan, literature on the subject dealt on issues such as bilingualism (e.g., Suzuki, 2007) and identity (e.g., Greer, 2005; Kamada, 2006; Otani, 2009).