2025 年 44 巻 1 号 p. 27-36
This study demonstrates that Japan’s educational system falls short in translating Japanese language support into equitable career development opportunities for students requiring such support. Employing a three-tier support model from school psychology (universal, systematic, and intensive), we analyzed national statistics, ministry guidelines, and municipal initiatives. At the lower-secondary level, 74% of students assigned to the “special curriculum” received no more than two class hours per week; their transition rate to upper-secondary school was 90.3%, 8.7 percentage points below the national average. In upper-secondary education, 76% of eligible students received some language assistance, yet only 5% accessed the special curriculum. Their dropout rate was 8.5% (national average: 1.1%), and 38.6% entered non-regular employment after graduation (national average: 22.9%). Teacher shortages, unequal municipal budgets, restrictive entrance rules, and the absence of career-oriented language programs contribute to pronounced regional disparities and render out-of-school youth invisible to public services. Although the 2019 Japanese-Language Education Promotion Act expanded provisions outside formal schooling, nationwide minimum entitlements, integrated career-language curricula, and proactive outreach to high-risk adolescents remain unaddressed. Without these reforms, Japanese-language support will continue partial remediation rather than as a pathway to equitable career development.
