I’m looking for ways to volunteer in my community. The catch is, I live in Fukuoka, Japan, and my Japanese language skills, while functional for my daily life, are really not at a level where I can be useful in the same ways I could in an English-speaking country. Which is to say, I talk like a four-year-old. At least I can talk at all, but still, options. Kind of limited.
My vague thoughts on the matter run like this. I’ll get Japanese friends to help me research, and see if I can find a worthy oppression-fighting organization, and then offer my services by:
1. giving free English lessons to their activists (if it’s a group for whom this is helpful);
2. helping with childcare, if their activists rely on any kind of volunteer childcare– maybe I could even lead some free music or English classes for the kids, since, after all, teaching English to Japanese kids is my regular day job; or
3. doing anything else they think I could helpfully do.
I’m a bit stymied by my language restrictions. I’m afraid any kind of proper activism is beyond my means right now. I mean, I guess I can just ladle out soup to the homeless if need be…
Please share any other ideas you might have.
Oh man, tough question. I was a longtime Japanese student and used to live in Kagoshima and spent a lot of time mulling over cultural questions. It wasn’t until after I came back and mostly abandoned my Japan studies that I started thinking critically about feminist and other social justice issues. I’m glad for that too, because if I had to synthesize both at the same my brain would have probably exploded. I can trust my instincts when thinking about social justice issues from an American perspective; I’m not 100% perfect and am always learning new things, but I’m pretty secure that I “get it” enough to be effective. Japan is not natural for me and it requires a lot of energy not just to translate the language, but all of my interactions with other people. I think I got pretty culturally savvy, but I know enough to know that I wasn’t in any kind of position to bust in and inform all Japanese people everywhere what is wrong with their culture/society and how to fix it.
You non-expats might think I’m being silly, but living in Japan can be frustrating. There are a lot of rules about everything that seem/are pretty fucking arbitrary and illogical. Many Westerners live there and frequently want to do a structural overhaul and cut down on the wasted time/bureaucracy/obligations that serve little obvious purpose and increase personal freedom. Quin, I don’t know much about you, but if you live there I assume you have some idea what I’m talking about. But, you know, surprise! It turns out that this POV is pretty racist and naive. The West doesn’t have a monopoly on the “correct” way of doing things and the Japanese have organized their culture to agree with their value system, not just to be frustrating. With patience and an open mind foreigners can learn to understand and appreciate the Japanese way of doing things.
…to a point. But when it comes to recognizing oppression, how can you differentiate between cultural differences that feel wrong from a Western point of view, but make sense in a different cultural context and absolute oppression? I am not really prepared to answer that, though I have made stabs at critiquing Japanese corporate/’salary man’ culture and mafia-entrenched entertainment industries. But as near and dear to my heart as feminist issues are, I just don’t know enough of what it’s like to actually be a Japanese woman to figure out how to best assist them. Japan is too different that I can’t draw many meaningful analogies from my life in America, so I have a very limited number of experiences to draw on. My language ability was good, but not good enough to discuss delicate social nuances in detail with actual Japanese people (they are the experts), so that is a barrier; going along with that is just that people in Japan tend to be very hesitant to tell you their true feelings and instead tell you what the socially acceptable answer to your query. (This is honne/tatatmae in Japanese, just so y’all know it’s not my invention.) Also Japanese society is pretty top-down in organization, so I wonder how grassroots activists in general are viewed, but I don’t really know.
This is my roundabout way of saying that I think your usefulness to the Japanese community as an activist is limited. How can you fight oppression if you don’t even know what it looks like in your new surroundings? Your best bet is to partner with an organization that can do the thinking for you and do tasks that are helpful to them. Even if you do that though, sometimes having a foreigner around creates more work than it might be worth. Language and cultural non-fluency can make it so that you might need some babysitting, or even if you don’t people will automatically think that you do because most gaijin are totally fucking clueless. I wish I could be of more use, but when I think Western non-fluent activist in Japan the image of a 5 year old trying to assist in a restaurant kitchen comes to mind. Maybe I’m just a pessimist…
Hey ElleDee,
Indeed, my brain may just explode.
You bring up a lot of interesting points. I may take a stab at writing one of those cliched old “differences between Japanese and American cultures” posts in the near future. But from my perspective, most of the problems for women in Japan strike me as more or less of the same breed as the problems of American women, though their respective versions of national patriarchal hierarchy may look a little bit different.
I certainly agree that the best way forward is to simply look to help a group that looks like it’s doing work I agree with, and let them guide me. I have faith these groups must be out there– I’ve already talked with Japanese women who are unhappy with the structure of Japanese society, and if that’s the case, you can bet that there’s groups working on the problem.
And you’re right, the ways I can help are limited, hence this post. I’m hoping that there might be something uniquely useful about being a Westerner-desiring-to-help. But maybe not. I guess, no matter what I do, until I learn Japanese more fluently I’ll just be a glorified soup ladler. But, hey, somebody needs to ladle the soup, right? Or whatever. Clean the toilet, deliver the sandwiches.
As for anyone who hasn’t lived in Japan who might feel an urge to give me a suggestion, you might think of the problem like this. Say you’re an activist, and a foreigner who doesn’t speak English well walks into your office and offers his help. He clearly has an education and time and resources and a personable enough manner. How would you want to use him? Maybe ladling soup is the best place for him, but… anywhere else you’d be tempted to put him?
EDIT TO ADD: Damn, when I put it like that… right, I guess I’ll bone up on my spoon-to-bowl coordination skills.
The Peace Corps does exactly that scenario all the time. And it isn’t ladling soup that they assign their volunteers to, either. Just sayin’.
If your Japanese proficiency is what’s holding you back, I’d suggest seriously practicing/studying the language. It took me 4-5 years from classes at university to working in a totally foreign-language environment to be fluent, but if you live in Japan, you should have plenty of opportunity to practice. Although I know that working as a certain type of English teacher can tend to surround you with other foreigners and Japanese people who would rather speak English.
Also, I agree mostly with ElleDee, although I do think that the insurmountability (sp?) of cultural differences is often over-exaggerated.
It’s true that *someone* has to ladle the soup. Or stuff envelopes or whatever. My mom always does lots of different community work and growing up I helped doing a lot of menial tasks. Activism requires minions, often a a small army’s worth, so I don’t think we should devalue that.
Also I’ve been thinking about this more, and one thing I shouldn’t discount is that your specific environment in Japan can make a huge difference. If you know the right people, I’m sure you can figure something out. If you don’t, you probably won’t be able to find much. It sounds like you have connections though, so that’s a very promising start. I wish I knew more specifically about volunteerism in Japan, but I can’t help you there.
Still I would be wary drawing comparisons between the US and Japan with regard to feminist issues. Some of the problems are the same or similar for sure, but the solutions, the things you are interested in, are just not going to be the same at all. The rigidness of the social structure in Japan is something I grew to deeply appreciate in many ways, but it is not easy to subvert because it totally dominates public life and people are mostly very invested in maintaining it, even when they are put through hardships because of it. If you work really hard within the system and somehow rise to the top of the heap late in your life you have the power to institute massive change because, again, top-down is the law of the land. This is how Japan was able to modernize so quickly after all. But of course the people on top are resistant to change the very system that they had to worship basically to get where they are. I am very interested in hearing how Japanese feminists deal with issues of legitimacy.
Quin, if you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing in Fukuoka? English teaching of some sort? How long have you been there?
Lisa KS: I did think of the Peace Corps while writing (I didn’t get to it because I was already yappin for way too long), but I thought they focused more on community/agriculture development in poor or war torn countries and disaster relief and those kinds of issues require a little less nuance maybe and those are not greatly needed in Japan. Needs like food and housing are pretty easy to identify and understand universally; building an education system or economic plan for an area is much easier when you are starting from scratch because you don’t have an existing system that everyone is bought into that you have to reform from the inside. Also it’s my understanding that Peace Corp people are dispatched at the request of the foreign government, but even still there have been concerns raised that it is neocolonialist, so it *is* a problem that they run into, so I don’t believe that they are totally white man’s burden-free. Add onto that the problem that Japan has a unique language that is challenging to learn unless you are a Korean speaker for some reason. And there’s never been any Peace Corps missions in Japan.
Whew, sorry for being so long winded.
There are lots of things I want to say! It is difficult to write them with coherently though. I lived in Japan for four years, one as a student and three as a teacher. The language was never really a barrier for me, it just made sense in my brain, so my experience was pretty different from most people I know. I was heavily involved in and wound up running a charity, but it was mostly run by foreigners and just raised money for other charities. Our main intention was to make the people where we lived aware of the Japanese groups that were already there.
A lot of people in Japan aren’t really aware that there are people who go hungry in Japan, and so we (when I was running it) focused mainly on giving money to Second Harvest Japan. Though by some weird symbolic desire of the people who started the organization years before we had to donate money to an international charity as well. Probably because we were there on the JET program and our technical job was “Internationalization.” Along these lines, there may be something like http://americasgrowarow.org/ in your area that you could get involved with, or even just a food pantry. We didn’t have any in our area, but a bigger city like Fukuoka might. It might not be exactly what you want to do, but people who go there are probably more likely to know about or be part of other groups.
I don’t really know what it is like in Fukuoka, but in Toyama where I lived, more than 2% of the population was considered “foreign.” Most of the foreigners were from Brazil, Russia, or Pakistan, which made it worse because though there are some positive stereotypes for people from the U.S./U.K./Canada to balance out the difficulty with negative racism there is very little for any other group of foreigner. There were a lot of issues and conflicts between them and police and Japanese residents, and a lot of stuff stacked against them, most of it illegal but largely unquestioned because they had no real power. A group that deals with issues like that and helping foreigners navigate legal issues in Japan might be one of the most helpful things you can get involved with. Though it might compound matters since you are likely to need not just Japanese but other language skills. It might be a good place to start though. Toyama had a really awesome group that provided free legal council for any foreigner who needed it, and I knew a lot of people who it helped get through a lot of things.
Also, how long do you intend to live there? And keep in mind, charity/volunteering is in some ways a foreign concept in Japan. There are some big national fundraisers, and schools will often do some things, but as far as I experienced and could gather from other people they don’t really do a lot of the helping people except through government organizations. And to be fair, their government organizations spread a far wider and sturdier safety net than ours do. Even with excellent language skills finding a group to work with could be really hard.
I am not sure what organization you made it to Japan with, was it JET? If it wasn’t, it might be worth it to try to find the JET community around you and see if they have any people involved in local volunteer organizations. Where I lived the JET/other foreign communities were pretty fluid, though I hear in a lot of places the JET community separates itself off and doesn’t get on very well with others. So that’d be something you have to find out for your area.
Do you teach at a public school or a private one? If it is a public school you may be able to work with the students or teachers in the “Volunteerism” club, if you have one.
I might post later as I think of things, these are just random ideas I am throwing about from my brain that I dealt with while I was in Japan. Also, I am sorry if none of them make sense. They aren’t really meant to be a coherent narrative or something, just ideas to get you thinking about where to look, what to look for, and what to expect.
Thanks for the input and perspectives, all. Yes, I’m an English teacher, for a private company. Only teach kids at the moment, and that’s fine by me. Also, it’s not quite the standard teaching situation, since I’m the one who wrote much of the school’s curriculum. Though it’s not something I ever really expected to do as a living, I have to say my particular job is pretty rewarding.
I’ve only been in Fukuoka about a month now, but I lived in Tokyo for four years before that. Transferred with the same company– I wanted to get out of Tokyo because I knew WAY too many English speakers there, and I needed to surround myself with new friends if I was going to have any chance at learning this awful Japanese language with any fluency. There’s actually a pretty large gaijin community here in Fukuoka, which I’ve already been exposed to. They seem nice enough, but I’d prefer to get involved with non-gaijin organizations, or at least with organizations which help the foreigners who really need it the most– which is to say, not westerners like me.
I’m not sure yet how long I’ll stay in Japan, but I’ve got a really sweet job in a town with a really friendly feeling and a not-too shabby music scene. That all counts for a lot with me. So who knows, I may become a lifer. Or not. I can decide that later!
Kiwilemoncat, a food pantry would be a fine place to start– thanks for the idea!
And keep in mind, charity/volunteering is in some ways a foreign concept in Japan.
Ah, but activism can take many forms. What do you think all those black vans driving around playing marching band music are all about?
I’ve got a secret source who says she’ll do some Japanese googling for me tomorrow– we’ll see if she turns up anything.