Japan needs to deal with legal ramifications, experts say
One of every 30 babies born in Japan in 2006 had at least one parent originating from overseas, according to a recent government survey.
The survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry found that the mother, father or both parents of 35,651 babies born here originated from countries other than Japan. This represents about 3.2 percent of the 1.1 million babies born nationwide in 2006.
The survey indicates that an increasing number of foreign nationals coming to Japan for employment or study are settling in the country, experts said.
While the increase in children with at least one non-Japanese parent will broaden the range of cultural background among the country’s residents, a lot more needs to be done to accept and provide legal protection for people from different backgrounds, they said.
The trend reflects the increasing number of foreigners marrying Japanese nationals. Of newly registered marriages in 2006, 6.6 percent involved at least one foreign national.
Of the year’s 49,000 marriages of mixed couples, about 36,000 involved a Japanese husband and non-Japanese wife.
Of the babies with at least one non-Japanese parent, 5.7 percent were born in Tokyo, followed by 4.9 percent in Aichi Prefecture and 4.5 percent in Mie Prefecture.
Kids’ language woes
A record 25,411 foreign students needed assistance with the Japanese language in everyday life or in the classroom as of last September, up 13.4 percent from a year earlier, according to a study on public schools by the education ministry.
It was the fifth consecutive annual increase. The number of such students has increased 46.9 percent since 1997 as more foreign workers have settled here and started to have school-age children.
Of the total, 21,206, or 83.5 percent, said they were receiving Japanese-language education, down 2.1 percentage points.
A panel of experts proposed in June that the education ministry step up training of Japanese-language instructors in light of the growing need.
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