Study on the Identity of Japanese Returnees

Introduction
Since America forced Japan to open its doors to trade in 1854, there has beena shift in Japan’s role in the international community. Japanese companies began toextend branches to foreign markets in the 1970s, and by the end of the bubble economy
in 1993, Japanese overseas investment stood at over $US 422 billion, with 37,000
Japanese executives managing these companies abroad (Japan Times, Tsuji, 1995). With
this, 50,842 school-aged children were taken along, marking a 24% increase from 1987.
This movement changed the way in which children of Japanese expatriates, or returnees,are viewed. Kanno (2000) argued that in the past, returnees were regarded as “someone
who is a strange mix of East and West, Japanese on the outside and a foreigner on theinside, who speaks better English than Japanese”. Yamamoto (2001), however,conducted a survey on attitudes toward bilingualism in Japan, which found that of thetotal 607 responses recorded, 362 (59.6%) were rated as positive, 179 (29.5%) as
neutral, and only 66 (10.9%) as negative. Noguchi (2001) argued that as overseas living1

became more common, foreign language education gained importance—signified by theemergence of Japan’s first English immersion program, Katoh Gakuen, in 1992. It isseemingly presumed that the acquisition of foreign languages, especially that of English
became more and more sought after, returnees would begin to be accepted in what wasonce perceived as a linguistic monolith.
Yet contrary to what these studies have suggested, the situation that returnees
find themselves in is a precarious one, in which they experience difficulty adjusting toeither the host country or home country, and in some cases both. This was said to beaffected by factors such as the age at which the returnee learned the L2 (Taura, 2005, pp.
153-154), the level of education that the returnee received (Skutnabb-Kangas, 1995, p.
50), and the nature of the community that the returnee lived in (Shibata, 2000). Kanno(2000) argued that returnees often find difficulty identifying with society of both thehost and home country, due to systems that segregate returnees from the rest of thecommunity—including ESL in the host country and admission especially for returnees
in the home country—and returnee’s tendency to “sit on the bilingual fence” (Dalley,cited in Kanno, p. 377), avoiding integration into either society. In fact, according to2

Butler and Hakuta (2004), language acquisition is to be considered an “acculturationprocess” in which the bilingual develops a unique culture and identity (p. 132).
Pavlenko (2006) further suggested, based on web questionnaire responses, that bi- andmultilinguals frequently perceive themselves as different when switching between
languages, claiming that some bi- and multilinguals, when switching from one language
to another, also switch persona. The present study focuses on exploring the dual identityof returnees.

Methodology
The information for this study was collected through narrative inquiry. Clearly,
this methodology—consisting of an analysis of people’s experiences as they areretold—is highly dependent on an individual’s assessment of experiences, but contrarily,
anecdotal evidence is especially significant in the present study because the topic ofinterest has to do with identity, which is as highly emotional as it is cognitive.
There were two participants in this study—Sho and Sachiko (pseudonyms areused to protect their identities). Sho was born in Japan but spent the prominent part of3

his childhood and adolescent years in New York, and received his elementary, middle,
and high school education in the public school system there. He was 18 years old at thetime of the study and was enrolled in an undergrad program at a private university in theTokyo metropolitan area.
Sachiko was also born in Japan and received her elementary and middle
school education in Southern California. A graduate of a private university in the Tokyo
metropolitan area, she was 24 years old and worked for a major consulting firm at thetime of the study.
The information was collected through a series of interviews and exchange ofe-mail. Sho communicated to me mainly in English, only making switches to Japanese
when he was using a distinctly Japanese word. Sachiko spoke mostly in Japanese, onlyusing English to elaborate and clarify points.

Findings
Overview
Sho moved from Japan to the United States at the age of 6, without ever4experiencing schools in Japan. Upon entering the 1st grade, he was enrolled in the ESLprogram, but was admitted leave in less than a year. He barely remembered having
trouble communicating in English, but according to his parents, his English progressed
remarkably in the first few months of living in the United States. The fact that heassociated himself mainly with monolingual English speakers—other Japanese students
at his school tended to stay in tight cliques—may have been a contributing factor. In
addition to Japanese and English, Sho speaks “good” Spanish (having studied it for 7years), and knows basic Chinese and Korean. He recognized his own talent for learning
languages, saying that because languages have always come naturally to him, he never
had difficulties retaining his Japanese while living abroad or learning additional
languages in school.
Sachiko’s family moved to the United States when she was 7, and she
transferred into the second grade at a local elementary school. She acquired English at
an early stage, and caught up on the school curriculum in a matter of months. Sachiko
had a gift for writing, and in addition to participating in the advanced English programat her middle school she was on the honor roll for three consecutive years.

5Dual identity
Giampapa (2004) observed a dual identity existent in Tania, a 27-year old
Italian Canadian woman whose father and mother are first generation and 1.5 generation
Italian Canadians. With her self-identified languages being Standard Italian, English,
and minimal knowledge of French and Spanish, she responded:…I think in English, I am insufferably aware of the way that the English language
manifests itself. While I also react that way to other languages, English is what I write
in—and writing, for me, is where I express myself most succinctly and completely. I am
also preoccupied with the relationship between English and the other language—Italianmost notably, I think, because it was passed down from my parents. I guess I don’t feelakin to the concerns of Italian citizens—I think it's because I don't feel that way about
any other place but Canada... I feel more North American—newer, less settled, stilldefining. I believe that has to do with being Canadian ultimately.

6

We can infer that Tania’s image of herself as a Canadian has less to do with ethnicity
and birthplace, but more with her self-image and also her dominant language, English.
Similar findings of a dual identity were found in the present study. Although it
was not an issue to switch between English and Japanese, Sho felt that he had two
different personalities when speaking them. When asked about the common stereotype
of a bilingual being more eager to express thoughts and emotions when speaking
English while being more reserved when speaking Japanese, he admitted to fallingunder the stereotype perfectly. He said that this was not only habitual but that it also
occurred because he was under the impression that something that is acceptable in
English could easily be taken as arrogance or boast when said in Japanese. This idea isthe reason for the rift between his taking the initiative in English conversations and his
general uneasiness in Japanese. Sho’s difference in outward attitudes was easily
recognizable when he exhibited code switching in our interviews.
In Sachiko’s case, she had spent a considerable number of years in Japan incontrary to Sho, and her aptitude in Japanese exceeded her aptitude in English afterhaving spent her high school and college years in Japan, yet she was certain that her7

behavior became more awkward when speaking Japanese. She claimed she felt
“childish and immature” in Japanese no matter how much vocabulary she attained. In
relation, she mentioned that when she was a university student, she made excessively
detailed notes when making presentations in Japanese but still felt nervousness and alack of confidence, whereas in English, she could make a speech confidently with amere outline.
Interestingly enough, both Sachiko and Sho denied having different identities
in languages other than Japanese and English. Sachiko, who started taking French in
middle school and continued her studies in university, claimed that whenever she spoke
French, her mind had to go through the strenuous task of translating her English
thoughts into French, and that no difference in identity existed. Sho, who acquired
Spanish after having studied it consecutively since middle school, claimed to be able tospeak relatively fluently, but also noted that the identity did not differ from his English
one. Two conclusions can be made of this. The first is that languages acquired in a laterpart of one’s life do not obtain an identity of its own. The second is that when languages
are acquired in a non-immersion environment (in Sho’s case, a Spanish class in an8

American public school where lessons and conversations were mainly in English), anidentity does not form as distinctly. It can be inferred that the degree to which thereturnee experienced immersion in the host country—whether they were thrown into asituation where they were forced to speak English or they were placed in ESL classes
where they were essentially isolated from majority language speaking students—affects
whether the returnee develops a dual identity.

Self-image
The issue of self-image arose a number of times during the study of Sho andSachiko. Other studies too have previously shown that the dual identity often observedin bilinguals leads to a failure to precisely identify oneself. Mills (2004) conducted astudy on two Pakistani-British women, one of whom acknowledged two key aspects ofBritish citizenship, legal status and English language, but at the same time, found herappearance as signaling her Pakistani heritage, which therefore excluded her from being“truly British”. The disjuncture between her legal status and her inability to precisely
identify her identity is similar to the struggles of returnees. The other informant had

9resolved a similar situation coherently:"When I go back other people say to me, 'Oh, you're a white person' because of the way
I behave, when I come over here people say to me, 'Oh, you're like a Pakistani person'
because I'm floating, I'm not fitting into either. It's only now that I'm deciding you know
it doesn't matter for me to fit in anywhere it's who I am and I can go around but I think
I've only come to that decision because I've had the choice of both or experience of bothcultures" (p. 172)

In this way, the informant overcame the conflict between her two identities, not byadhering to either of the identities, but by “floating” between the two. She has resolved
her internal conflict, not by choosing one identity and rejecting the other, but by “sittingon the fence” and defining herself as possessing both identities.
There is a common notion that returnees face a sense marginalization either intheir home country or host country because of their lack of proficiency in a language.
The present study found that the notion is partly false and that the sense of10

marginalization is a result of the returnee’s inability to define herself rather than thelevel of fluency in the languages.
Even with his English skills so high that he could pass AP-level English withflying colors, Sho claimed that his perception of himself as Japanese “did not just goaway” and that during his extended stay in the United States, there was never a day
when he did not feel apart from his peers because of it. He often felt there was adisparity between his appearance and his “real” identity; he spoke native English and he
had the mindset and values of an American, but his physical features kept him frompursuing his identity. It is clear that even with balanced bilingualism, Sho felt out ofplace in both his home and host country.
Sho did not escape this sense of marginalization and loss of identity uponmoving back to Japan. Living in Japan for the first time in thirteen years, he wasastonished by the differences in cultures and accepted behavior from the United States.
Because he had a completely different background from most of his peers, he said it
was like he was “just a foreigner masked with a Japanese face.” He could understandthe language, and yet, he felt that he could not relate to Japanese values. Although he11

did not yet experience attrition in his English, he was aware that his friends in theUnited States who went to the top-ranked universities in the United States were further
developing their English, while he was only taking one English lesson a week. “I knowthat because I gradated high school [in the United States], my English is a better
situation compared to other kikokushijo,” said Sho. “But there’s this unshakable feelingthat in 4 or 5 years, I won’t be able to communicate on the same level as some of myfriends who will graduate college in the States.” Moreover, Sho’s concern of his identity
not being “whole” even kept him from having a positive self-esteem and lead to mentalunstableness.
Contrarily, Sachiko had a similar experience to the latter of Mills’
Pakistani-British informants. Having different identities in the two language was only
natural, she claimed, because she felt that each language was linked to the respective
culture and her own experiences.
The most significant factor that affected Sho’s and Sachiko’s differences inself-perception is the educational environment. Whereas Sho’s first experience at aJapanese school was in college, where individuals’ concerns were not addressed,12Sachiko attended a private high school in which around 4 out of 10 students werereturnees and bilingualism was highly valued. Clearly, this difference in learning
environments can be said to affect the informants’ self-images.
Bartlett (2007) examined, through the observation of a Spanish-speaking
student at a high school in America and her acquisition of English, that the L2 student’s
identity formation is shaped through the school’s bilingual literacy practices, the“opportunity narrative” (p. 28), and the relationships between students, teachers, andadministrators. Similarly, Kanno (2008) introduced Zhonghua Chinese Ethnic School, aChinese immersion school in Japan, where the goal is the "preservation of the Chinese
language, culture, and identity." (p. 61) in children who will perhaps spend their entire
lives outside of China. She argued that if the students at Zhonghua had been attending aJapanese monolingual school, they would most likely have been labeled as Chinese and"their language deficiency, rather than their bilingualism, would be highlighted"
whereas at Zhonghua, Chinese-speaking children were given the spotlight. Bartlett’sand Kanno’s findings are significant to my assertion that the educational environment
influences the returnee’s self-image.

13

Conclusion
The present study shows that the returnee’s bilingualism often leads to a dual
identity, resulting in a struggle with self-image and a sense of marginalization from bothsocieties. Furthermore, the education environment can be said to be a major factor in
determining the returnee’s self-image, reinforcing Kanno’s (2000) assertion that thecurrent educational systems in the host and home country do not support the returnee’s
integration into society.
Wei (2007) claimed, "Some bilingual children may find it difficult to copewith the school curriculum in either language for a short period of time. However, these
are challenges that bilingual people have to face” (p. 21). As much as it is true that
returnees have many advantages of being a bilingual, it is difficult in the present
situation of academic institutions and society as a whole for returnees to reap thebenefits of being bilingual.

14

References
Bartlett, L. (2007) Bilingual literacies, social identification, and educational trajectories.
Linguistics and Education: (28).
Butler, Y.G & Hakuta, K. (2004). Bilingualism and second language acquisition. In T.K.
Bhatia & W.C. Ritchie (Eds.), The handbook of bilingualism (pp. 114-144).
Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Connelly, F. M. & Clandinin, D. J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry.
Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2-14.
Connelly, F. M. & Cladinin, D. J. (1994). Narrative inquiry. In T. Husen & T.N.
Postlethwaite (Eds.). The international encyclopedia of education2nd ed. (Vol.
7, pp. 4046-4051). Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Giampapa, F. (2004). The politics of identity, representation, and the discourses ofself-identification: Negotiating the periphery and the center. In A. Pavlenko& A. Blackledge (eds) Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts (p.
204). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD.
Kanno, Y. (2000). Bilingualism and identity: The stories of Japanese returnees.

15International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1 (3), 1-18.
Mills, J. (2004) Mothers and mother tongue: perspectives on self-construction bymothers of Pakistani heritage.

In A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (eds)

Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts (p. 186). Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters LTD.
Noguchi, M. (2001). Introduction: The crumbling of a myth. In Noguchi, M. & Fotos, S.
(Eds.). Studies in Japanese bilingualism (pp. 24-44). Bristol, PA: Multilingual
Matters.
Pavlenko, A. (2006) Bilingual selves. In A. Pavlenko (ed.) Bilinsgual minds: Emotional
experience, expression, and representation (pp. 1-33). Clevedon, UK:
Multilingual Matters
Schieffelin, B. & Doucet, R. (1998) The 'real' Haitian Creole: Ideology, metalinguistics
and orthographic choice. In B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard, and P. Kroskrity (eds)
Language ideologies: Practice and theory (pp. 285-316). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Shibata, S. (2000). Opening a Japanese Saturday school in a small town in the United

16

States: Community collaboration to teach Japanese as a heritage language.
Bilingual Research Journal, 24. Retrieved July 7, 2009, from http://brj.asu.edu/v244/articles/art9.html
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1995). Multilingualism and the education of minority children. InO. Garcia & C. Baker (Eds.). Policy and practice in bilingual education, (pp.
40-62). Bristol, PA: Multilingual Matters.
Taura, H. (2005). Bilinguality & bilingualism in Japanese school-aged children. Tokyo:
Akashi Shoten.
Tsuji, M. (1995). Returnees find themselves at home: Living abroad is now less likely tomean alienation upon return. Japan Times Kansai Edition, September 14.
Wei, L. (2007) Dimensions of bilingualism. In L. Wei (ed.) The bilingualism reader (pp.
5-21). London: Routledge.
Yamamoto, M. (2001). Japanese attitudes toward bilingualism: A survey and itsimplications. In M. Noguchi & S. Fotos (Eds.). Studies in Japanesebilingualism (pp. 24-44). Bristol, PA: Multilingual Matters.

17