Invisible Children...

When I first returned to Japan after finishing my degree I realised that I had a bit of a handicap. Although I could speak the language fluently I was illiterate, for all my education had been in English my entire life. As a recent graduate I didn't have enough money to enroll in a language school so I decided to learn Japanese from a group of volunteers in my neighbourhood who taught Japanese to all levels of students.

After a while I got to know all the teachers and we would often go for dinner after our classes ended at 9pm. We would talk about our lives, our dreams, or what happened that day. All the volunteers had their reasons for doing what they did. I remember asking each of them what they did during the day. Everyone had a job, of some sorts, apart from E-chan, who was a housewife and a "militant" volunteer.

So, E-chan, where else do you teach Japanese?

Oh, I only teach Japanese to you guys; I teach the invisible children how to read and write.

The Invisible Children?

Japan's law on citizenship, or naturalisation, states that you are eligible to become a Japanese citizen if one, or both, of your parents are Japanese nationals at the time of your birth. During the 1990s there was a huge influx of women from the Philippines and Thailand who came to work in the "night entertainment industry" -- basically as hostesses and as whores. Many of these women were working hard to send money back home to support their family, but they are just as human as you or me, and they fell in love... with Japanese men.

When two bodies and spirits join as one, the next natural step is to procreate. These women from South East Asia bore children - bundles of love and joy - for the love of the man that promised them a life beyond poverty. A life of love, life, and luxury.

Unfortunately, these women work in the sex industry, and often the men would use that as an excuse to say "how do I know it's mine" and waiver their responsibility for raising another human life. These men refused to sign their names on their child's birth certificate. Results according to the authorities: mother Gaijin, father unknown....

E-chan used to teach writing and maths to the invisible children who were of school age, but had no rights to go to school. Their mothers had overstayed their visas, and the children were not recognised as Japanese nationals. During the weekday she had a class of 7 children who were all born and bread in Japan, spoke very little of their mother's language, and had no basic human rights.

For they were invisible children.

I was really touched by E-chan's story that day. Years later I saw a news report about a 10 year old girl named, Mariko, who had a Japanese father and a Filipino mother. Mariko and her mother were recently deported back to the Philippines because her mother had overstayed her visa. Mariko spoke no Tagalog, she spoke only Japanese, and she had learned basic maths and writing (Japanese) by volunteers teachers -- much like E-chan -- and she just didn't belong in the Philippines.

Imagine going from a "developed country" like Japan to a developing country like the Philippines at 10 years old, just because your dad decided that he didn't want to acknowledge your existence to save public face? She was forced to move from a world with her friends, her language, her culture to one that was foreign, just because her father wouldn't sign on the dotted line.

Please explain this madness to me.

"A person is eligible to become a Japanese National if one, or both the parents, at the time of their birth, is a Japanese National"...

These words have created a huge legal loop hole, one that which, unfortunately, let the Mariko's fall thru and do not allow them to return.

I will never forget Mariko's face as the cameras zoomed into her; her big brown eyes had turned red and were stained with tears. Do you have a message to the people of Japan?

"Otosan, Mariko no koto mukaeni kite kudasai." (Daddy, please come and take me home)

For those 3 minutes as her story was aired on TV, Mariko, for the first time in her life, became visible.

(post script: I do not know how many Mariko's there are in Japan today. There is no way of tracking the "Hafu" children of temporary workers in the sex industry that over stay their visas. But I do know that not many people have taken up their cause. These children live today in "their" world, "their" country with no access to basic rights, such as rights to education, rights to basic healthcare, and rights to be recognised by their fathers that they are the results of two people that fell in love...)