A Truth of Japan’s Foster Care (1): The Girl in the Home
Since last year, I have been visiting a children’s home once a week as a volunteer. It’s located in my neighbourhood and I look after a few elementary school girls there. We spend our time together working on homework, playing the piano, or drawing—my role is simply to be there for them.
Each child carries her own history, but I never pry. Yet, as we gradually grow close through the time we share, things begin to surface—sometimes falling from their own lips between the lines of what they say, other times revealed in a fleeting gesture.
Arshleen—both her given and family names rendered in Katakana—was born in Japan. Within the Japanese writing system, there exists a duality of phonetic characters: Hiragana for native words and Katakana for those borrowed from abroad. It is for this reason that Arshleen’s name is etched in the latter. Furthermore, as a Japanese family name is typically written in Kanji, the Katakana of her own marks her undeniably as a foreigner—even if her Asian features allow her to blend into a crowd.
I have never heard her speak of how she feels about this. Yet, pinned on the wall before her desk is a sheet of her calligraphy, where five Kanji characters are brushed in a bold vertical line:
多 栗 亜 珠 林
When read aloud, they become her name: Ta-ku-ri A-shu-rin.
“Arshleen is a wonderful singer. She has a beautiful voice.”
A university student who also volunteers there had once told me. So, I asked Arshleen.
“Would you sing something for me? Because I heard you have a lovely voice.”
In response, she sang a well-known Japanese children’s song. Then, she prompted me to sing something, too. The song that spilled from my lips was a track from the Hindi film Shree 420. A friend of mine, who had a collection of Raj Kapoor CDs, taught it to me long ago. I sang just the opening lines.
“What language? What does it mean?” she asked.
I explained the lyrics to her: “My shoes are Japanese, my trousers are English, the hat on my head is Russian—but my heart, my heart is Indian.”
However, the Japanese government has yet to track the specific figures for foreign children living under social care such as foster homes and various residential institutions. Consequently, their actual circumstances remain largely undocumented in official statistics.
When Arshleen and her sister, two years her junior, were first taken into care, no one knew how many lonely nights they had survived, clinging to each other all alone. Though she remains thin today, she seems healthy enough to be a talented futsal player.
One day, she practiced her shots on the road outside the Home with a male staff member and the other kids. When a shot found its mark, she leaped with joy. Then, another child’s stray kick sent the ball bouncing awkwardly off his body, Arshleen turned scarlet, doubled over in laughter. It was the first time I had ever seen her face lit by such pure, unburdened light—the moment I truly heard her laugh like that.
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That evening, I found myself writing a poem for her. Although she only knows Japanese for now, I wrote it with the hope that one day, when she can read English, these words will reach her.
Arshleen
You don’t know your father.
Your mother isn’t in Japan.
The language of her lullaby is silent.
So, you live in the Home.
Arshleen,
you write your name
in Roman alphabet as Asyurin—
the Japanese way.
You learn two-digit calculations.
You draw your name in dark ink.
You practice Kanji, and
it comes easy now.
Where are the words your mother spoke?
You have no words from her tongue.
I know your mother tongue, but
my words for you are only Japanese.
Arshleen,
when you laugh
in a clear, bright Japanese sound,
whose voice is it you hear?
Currently, around 3.96 million foreign nationals reside in Japan, a figure that continues to increase. This trend is also reflected in the number of births; it is reported that approximately 23,000 children of foreign nationality are born in Japan annually, accounting for roughly 3.2% of all births nationwide.
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However, the Japanese government has yet to track the specific figures for foreign children living under social care such as foster homes and various residential institutions. Consequently, their actual circumstances remain largely undocumented in official statistics.
Nonetheless, independent data suggest that children with foreign roots represent an estimated 3.8% of those in foster care as a whole. This percentage exceeds the proportion of foreign births in the general population.
Next Part: 31 March, 2026
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Mayumi Yamamoto is a writer and academic based in Kyoto, Japan. Her poems have appeared in Literary Yard, and some opinions in Indian Periodical. She authored several published books in the Japanese language.
