From the Desk of Consul General Osumi

2024/8/23
Cupertino High School students at JP Class Roundtable
JP Class Roundtable
Essay Vol. 12
~Passionate Students from Cupertino High School Make Their Thoughts Heard~
 
August 23, 2024
Yo Osumi
Consul General of Japan in San Franscicsco

 
 “This Japanese program is the center of my high school life. Without it, our community would be lost.” “I was able to go to Japan after winning the National Japan Bowl (the national Japanese language competition). I really enjoyed my experience visiting Japan and I hope to return to Japan after I graduate from high school to study Japanese.”

  Recently, the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco hosted a roundtable with Japanese language teachers and students, community members, and representatives of Japanese community organizations to discuss the issue of Japanese language program closures. Students from Cupertino High School came and took turns sharing their thoughts about studying Japanese. They study Japanese in high school, but now their program is in danger of ending in the next few years.

  As I mentioned in Consul General Essay Vol. 3, the number of institutions offering Japanese language education and the number of students studying Japanese are on the decline throughout the United States. Although 126 elementary, middle, and high schools in California offer Japanese classes, Japanese programs are being phased out not only in areas with limited budgets, but also in affluent areas like Silicon Valley, where students in schools like Cupertino High School often win top prizes in the Japan Bowl championships.

  There are various reasons for this, but it is not necessarily because interest in Japanese is fizzling out. Rather, to put it simply, there is a decrease in overall student enrollment. In Silicon Valley, the number of children in the region is declining as more people move away due to rising housing prices. In addition, students may not feel the need to study foreign languages with such intense competition between a variety of elective courses.

  The Consulate General has been holding roundtables with local Japanese language teachers, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California, and sister city associations to discuss how to respond to this issue. At the August 7 roundtable, I had the opportunity to hear directly from local high school students about their experience studying Japanese. They expressed their love for the Japanese language and their apprehension about the loss of Japanese programs, and explained their petition calling on relevant parties to reconsider cancelling the program and their plans to lobby the school board. As an adult, I was impressed and humbled by these students’ maturity and clarity in their thoughts and actions.

 This roundtable shares the vision of an inclusive and community-driven initiative to sustain and expand Japanese classes by inviting all interested parties to support efforts to promote Japanese cultural exchange. We affirmed our support of the students in their efforts to save their program and highlighted events for elementary and middle school students to deepen their interest in Japanese courses by “experiencing Japan.” We also discussed the idea of arranging Japanese company visits for high school Japanese classes to explore future career opportunities.

  Since the August 7 roundtable, the students’ petition increased from less than 500 signatures to nearly 1000 signatures (at the time of writing). The students’ goal is to reach 2500 signatures. These high school students have proven their conviction and the strength of their initiative. If you would like to support them, please search their petition title, “Bring Back Japanese at Cupertino High School,” online.
 In the U.S.-Japan Summit Joint Statement from this past April, the two governments affirmed, “We acknowledge the importance of language study, particularly in person, in developing long-term ties.” Many of today’s Japanese language students have no previous family ties to Japan, but have become fans of Japan through anime, pop culture, and other ways. In a way, they are the bedrock “friends of Japan.” To nurture these young minds, it is important for us at the Consulate General of Japan to support Japanese language courses, and I believe everyone involved feels the same way.

 If you are interested in this issue and feel so moved as to support the students however you can, I am sure that they would be greatly appreciative. Efforts such as these are small yet crucial steps for the future of the Japan-U.S. relationship.