According to the survey on students who need Japanese second language education conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2005), there are 19,687 students who need Japanese second language education from public elementary to high schools in Japan. Since the beginning of 90s there is an increasing number of students who transferred to Japanese public schools before they fully acquired their first language; for instance, Chinese returnee students and Japanese descendants from South American countries.
These students who came to Japan at an early age such as in grade one, seem not to receive a sufficient educational support, since they might be considered as students needless of systematic language leaning. Although many teachers address that these students will have challenges with their both first and second language (Yamada 2004), there is no educational system that supports these students if several years have already passed since they came to Japan. What is worse is that there are usually not enough resources, such as Japanese second language teachers and instructional materials at schools they attend. The situation of these students who came to Japan at their early age appears contrastive to that of students who recently arrived in the country, where research and educational systems are gradually developing.
In this paper, I explore the situation of Japanese second language education for young learners at a public junior high school, specifically focusing on students who came to Japan at an early age. As well, I investigate how students perceive their experience in a Japanese school based on their own voices and perspectives gained through interviews, and how Japanese schools affect returnee students' ways of looking at themselves. Finally, I suggest how Japanese second language learning can include these young students.