Japanese shy away from hosting foreign students in holidays

Ren Jihuan, a 32-year-old Chinese student studying international trading at Kanagawa University, is aware that his school can place him with a homestay family, but hehas never bothered to take advantage of the opportunity since "it seems difficult to be picked."

Schools in Japan are usually closed in late December and early January for the winter break, which makes it the perfect time for foreign students who are stuck in Japan and feeling a bit homesick to experience life with a Japanese family, even if it is just for a few days.

As in previous years, however, Ren, who has been here for four and a half years, decided to pass on doing a homestay during the 22-day winter vacation, and instead is working in the kitchen at an izakaya, a Japanese-style pub, on all the days except for New Year's Day.

Ren, who comes from China's northeastern province of Jilin, noted that even though the work keeps him occupied "that doesn't mean I'm not lonely at all."

Ken Joseph, founder and director of the Japan Helpline, which serves the foreign community in the country, said, "We receive more calls in year-end and New Year periods, mostly (from people) just asking for someone to talk to."

Westerners call around Christmas time when they miss their families and hometowns, while Asians tend to call around New Year's Day, Joseph said.

"Even though they manage to keep themselves busy, they still feel lonely on Christmas and New Year's Day," said Joseph, who expects to be busier as Japan invites more and more foreign students.

The number of foreign students, from Ph.D. candidates to those learning Japanese at language schools, has been increasing in recent years. In 2003, the number rose 12 percent to 176,070 from 157,613 the previous year, according to the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau.

Joseph said he is trying to help foreign residents by sometimes arranging short homestays for them, which is difficult during the holiday season.

The nonprofit Experiment in International Living (EIL) matches nearly 500 foreigners, mostly students, with Japanese host families per year. But it has failed to place any foreigners with Japanese families during the winter break for two years in a row, EIL official Masaru Hayashi said.

The reason appears to be that during the holiday season, there are not enough Japanese families willing to host a foreign resident.

"I guess Japanese families want to spend the year-end and New Year's period only by themselves," Hayashi said. He said many families interested in hosting foreign students turn down requests from his organization during the period.

Ren and most other foreign students also face another challenge. About 90 percent of the foreigners successfully placed with Japanese host families are native English speakers, according to EIL, which has a list of about 500 Japanese families registered as volunteer hosts.

But the reality is that native English speakers are a rare breed in Japan. There were 176,070 foreign students registered in Japan as of December 31, 2003. But English is the mother tongue for only 3,734 of them, or 2.1 percent of the total, according to the Japan's Immigration Bureau.

The largest group by nationality is Chinese, like Ren, who formed 72 percent of the total, followed by Koreans at 13 percent.

The preference for a house guest is entirely up to host families, and EIL can not do anything to fix the mismatched demand, Hayashi said. EIL has not taken any measures like campaigning to promote hosting non-native English speakers, he said. "They probably want to let their children speak English."

But aware of the importance of home stay programs, Noriko Hayashibe, a 62-year-old Japanese woman, is working hard to offer a chance for foreign residents, regardless of their native languages, to stay with a host family.

In addition to serving as a representative of Setagaya Universal Network for United Support, a group that supports lives of foreigners through interaction with Japanese families and society in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, she has hosted three foreigners -- from Vietnam, Israel and Australia -- during the winter break over the past 10 years.

Hayashibe advises foreigners to get out of the house during the New Year's period even if they have nothing to do, because they can see "cultural side of Japan."

"In what country can you see such a complete switch of culture in a week: from Christmas to New Year's Day?" she asked.

She also tells Japanese families, "Invite them casually and welcome them. You will discover something new."'

Source: Xinhua