Job Discussion Forums

Marcel · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 5

Hello everyone,

I`m looking for advice from those who`re married to a Japanese, and have had children. My wife is pregnant and I`d like hear some of your opinions as to where we should have the baby - Canada or Japan?

I`ve heard Japan doesn`t allow dual citizenship, and so the child would have to renounce his/her citizenship once they reach 18. Besides that, I`m quite uninformed about any advantages or benefits that may exist in one place over another. Please advise...
Thanks Smile

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

How well does your wife speak English? Mine had our son in a Japanese hospital. It put us closer to her mother, with whom she stayed a month after the birth (quite common here), and she felt very comfortable seeing a fellow Japanese doctor and midwife.

Renouncing one citizenship takes place at 22, not 18, by the way.

I don't know what it's like being "half", but I've heard of teasing and bullying in Japan is very common, but I can imagine it is also fairly common back home, too. Maybe more so here.

Health care is good financially here. Don't know what it's like back home.

Doglover · Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 305 Location: Kansai

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Are you asking about just the birth of the baby or about where to raise the child?

My wife and I have had a child born in Canada and in Japan, so am in a good position to answer your question about the actual birth. Where are you living now? In Canada, the birth is free, whereas in Japan, the average cost of having a baby is about 550,000 yen approx (Japanese gov't pays back 300,000 yen and possibly that will be raised to 350,000 yen), when you facor in all the doctor's visits and 20 odd ultrasounds. If you are in Japan now and want to have the baby born in Canada, then there is usually a 3 month waiting period before your medical coverage kicks in.
I think the care is better in Japan and your wife, being Japanese will probably feel more comfortable here. In Canada, it is like a factory, have the baby and you are out the door the next day or sometimes the same day. In Japan, you often stay 7-10 days, luckily they let my wife out after 5 days as she was climbing up the walls.

Citizenship-wise, it doesn't matter. Your child will be dual no matter where they are born.

Oh yeah, congratulations and a soon to be welcome to The Club (of Dad's).

moot point · Joined: 22 Feb 2005 Posts: 441

you wrote

Marcel · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 5

johanne · Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 189

I teach at an international school and most of my students are bilingual. However, and this is also from personal experience, the language you are educated in, especially if it is from Grade 1 on, will be your stronger language unless you really make a concerted effort to learn more sophisticated vocabulary in the other language (that is the one you may speak at home but not use regularly at school) than needed in everyday life. My mother is French Canadian and French was my first language, but I went to school in English, where I was taught new vocabulary and interesting idioms and phases, etc. In French I just chatted with my family. I liked to read, but it was easier in English so I always choose English books despite my mother's constant encouragement to read in French. I regret now that I didn't take her advice. The upshot of it is that while I'm fluent in French, I can write and express myself much better in English. This is also the case for many students in international schools who have spent their whole lives in English-meduim schools.

I've also talked to Japanese staff at my school who went to international school for all or most of their primary and secondary education and while they are all fluent in Japanese and sound native, they all say there are gaps in their vocabulary. For example, they are not always sure of proper business Japanese in their dealings with Japanese companies.

My own daughter is 4 years old and chatting away in English very fluently. In Japanese she is repeating the same phrases and vocabulary most of the time. We are planning to send her to Japanese public school from Grade 1 in the hope that she will get a strong foundation in Japanese. I will teach her English at home in hopes of building the same level of language in English. I'm not sure how this will all work out but I'm hoping for the best. In my opinion, it definately won't happen on its own, at least not if you're looking for true bilingualism.

Nismo · Joined: 27 Jul 2004 Posts: 520

I have a similar question. My wife and I are both from different countries, neither of those countries being Japan. However, we both live here, now. If we were to have a child on Japanese soil, would the baby receive Japanese nationality?

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

Marcel · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 5

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

abufletcher · Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 10:21 am Post subject:

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

johanne · Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 189

Marcel,

At my school the fees are 1.8 million a year (about $15,000 USD) when you include the building fund and some other fund whose name I forget, so it is very expensive and there are no discounts for siblings. Teachers get a 90% discount so I'm getting a great deal while my daughter is in kindergarten there, but we are still planning to send her to Japanese elementary school in our attempt to give her as much chance as possible to be bilingual.

At my school the kids get 3 40-minute periods of Japanese a week. The kids are divided into native speaker (basically anyone with at least one Japanese parent or a parent who has immigrated to Japan and speaks Japanese, as opposed to coming here short term) and foreigner class. In some cases the kids with a Japanese parent are not all that fluent depending on their particular situation. In any case the Japanese teacher tells me that the students in the "native"class are about 1-2 years behind those in Japanese elementary schools in their Japanese language skills.

I've seen the work from the Japanese class posted on bulletins boards and by Grade 3 the native class is writing quite a bit, using kanji, but my Japanese isn't good enough to judge how well they are writing.

All their other courses are taken in English and from Grade 6 they also study Spanish or French.

I do know of a school in Tokyo, the New International School, where they teach some subjects in Japanese and some in English. I visited them when I was looking for work and what they do, in the elementary school at least, is assign 3 teachers per class, one English speaker, on Japanese and on assistant and the teachers divide up the kids throughout the day and teach them in both Japanese and English. It was a relatively new school so I'm not sure how it's working out, but just to let you know there are some more bilingual-education oriented schools out there that the traditional International schools. I wasn't interested in working there as that level of team-teaching requires a lot of hours at school and with a young child I home I wasn't willing to commit the time, but it did look like an interesting place.

Anyway good luck with your baby - you're in for a real change of life!

Marcel · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 5

Thanks everyone, for your insights and info...
I`m a bit shocked at the cost; but I guess I shouldn`t be considering prices in Japan are high anyway.
Don`t really know what I`ll end up doing in terms of the child`s education yet. However, I do know that I hated relocating and moving schools when I was growing up. My parents moved around a lot, and as a result I learned to speak 4 languages. However, it took me a while to get some footing and gain confidence as I was culturally disoriented most of the time.