Demographic Characteristics of Foreign Residents in Japan; Child Maltreatment and Language Problems in Child Protection Services

Abstract

In this study, we examined the changes in the demographic characteristics of foreign residents in Japan (FRJ) and the current status of FRJ from a global health perspective. We also considered child maltreatment that occurred in FRJ families and language problems in child welfare. Japan's official statistics in the end of 2017 indicated that there were more than 2.56 million FRJ from over 190 countries. This population was diverse with heterogeneous characteristics, such as age structure, dwelling place, marital status, and childbirth. At the end of 2017, there were 219,982 FRJ children aged 0-14 of various nationalities, including Chinese, Brazilian, South Korean, North Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Peruvian, Nepalese, and Indian. In 2010, we conducted our first survey of child maltreatment in FRJ families, targeting 219 child protection centers across Japan. Between April 2007 and August 2010, 1,639 child maltreatment cases were reported from 56% of these centers. Details of 1,111 cases were collected and descriptive analyses were conducted. The male-to-female ratio was 0.88 and the median age was 8 years: however, the age distribution showed that females were significantly older than males (P < 0.01). The proportions of physical abuse, child neglect, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse were 38%, 33%, 21%, and 7%, respectively. Native language problems created numerous challenges and required a large amount of effort from child welfare practitioners. However, most solutions to identified problems were still at the beginning stage and some were found to be ineffective. More interdisciplinary and integrated researches are needed targeting child welfare of FRJ. An ethical framework for good counseling practices should be developed. Key words: foreign residents in Japan(在日外国人) ，native language(母語) ，child maltreatment(児童虐 待／マルトリートメント) ， child protection(子ども保護) ， descriptive epidemiology(記述疫学)

Disaster Preparedness among Nepalese Residing in Japan: a Mini-Review

“…Nepalese immigrants residing in other English speaking countries like the United Kingdom, The United States, Canada, etc. have higher information seeking behavior compared to those in Japan because people coming to Japan are mostly the blue collar workers with poor Japanese language abilities [19,20]. Hence, availability of health information related to disaster prevention in Nepali language might be better to increase the knowledge of Nepalese regarding disaster preparedness and which will eventually increase their practice skills.…”