Nepalese community represents one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in Japan. There is an increasing trend of Nepalese immigrants settling in Japan with families. As a result, the educational needs of children of Nepalese root are becoming prominent among the community members. Some Nepalese groups are taking initiatives to operate Nepalese curriculum-based schools in urban areas such as Tokyo and Nagoya. However, there are many Nepalese children both in urban areas and countryside who attend Japanese public schools. They have limited opportunities to learn about their national language and culture.
As a part or our project activity, we have been exploring the nascent community based Nepalese language supplementary classes organized by Nepalese community members in Fukuoka, Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya. We also have had opportunity to engage with Nepalese resource persons employed by the education department of some cities and prefectures to support educational attainment of Nepalese children in Japanese schools. We organized an online networking meeting on April 23, 2023 to facilitate information sharing and interaction among the language groups and resource persons.