Education for Immigrant Children in Japan A Frame Analysis of the Successful Cases of Hamamatsu and Kani City

Sammanfattning: Japan currently faces a rapid increase in labor immigrants due to the decrease of the population. The number of immigrant children is expected to increase because of the open labor immigration policy. Although the education of immigrant children is very complex, Hamamatsu city and Kani city have implemented successful educational policies to solve the problems of out-of-school children. This research aims to determine how immigrant children's education is represented as a problem and how the policymakers are motivated to provide education to immigrant children. The theory of frame and frame analysis are proposed by the different scholars. The inductive frame analysis is conducted on the public documents from the two cities. The results indicate the relevant frames. The policymakers' moral views are highlighted as understanding immigrant children as a part of the local community, enforcing children's education rights, providing opportunities to learn mother language and culture, promoting educational opportunities despite the lack of school information, economical situation and parents' interests. The important findings are the policymakers' value of future benefits from investing in immigrant children's education and the strategic use of frames.