Heritage language education- Children of Immigrants in Japan, Children of Japanese in the UK (morning session)

Title: In Between – In Search of Native Language Spaces 

Duration: 38 min 

Language: Japanese and English/ English Subtitle 

Director: Kiho Park 

Producer : Kiho Park, Masako Tanaka 

Supported by: Toyota Foundation 2022 International Grant Program 

Organised by: MICLE Project 

日常使用言語は日本語、母語は朝鮮・韓国語。在日コリアンとして生を受けた私にとって、それは当たり前のことでした。いわゆる「バイリンガル」として成長するなかで、日本という国が「モノリンガル」的社会であることに気付いたのは随分と時間が経ってからでした。そこから数十年という時が過ぎ、日本は今「移民国家」になろうとしています。日本にやってくる外国ルーツの人々の母語は誰が保証するのでしょうか。彼らを受け入れる日本はここ数十年でどう変わってきたのでしょうか。あちらとこちらを往来し続ける私の視点によるこの映画を通じて、みなさんと一緒に考えてみたいです。 

Growing up as a Zainichi Korean(Japanese Korean), my daily language was Japanese, while my mother tongue was Korean. This was simply a fact of life for me. It wasn’t until much later that I realised Japan operates largely as a "monolingual" society, despite my experience of growing up bilingual.   

Decades have passed since then, and Japan is now on the brink of becoming a nation of immigrants. But who will ensure the preservation of the mother tongues of those with foreign roots coming to Japan? How has Japan, as a society, evolved over the past few decades to accommodate this change?   

Through this film, shaped by my perspective as someone who constantly navigates between "here" and "there," I hope to explore these questions with you. 

朴　基浩

Kiho Park

ドキュメンタリー映像作家。在日コリアン3世。大学卒業後に、進学も就職もしない高校生の課題を知り、その問題を解決するのためのNPOを立ち上げ・経営。同団体の共同代表を2015年に代表を退任後、ドキュメンタリー映像制作をスタート。姉の出産に立ち会った経験から、「女性の生理」についてのドキュメンタリーを制作、映画祭などに入選。映像制作のかたわら、海外メディアのローカルプロデューサー／コーディネーターとしてBBCの業務に従事。過去の業務としては、G20大阪サミット、東京オリンピック・パラリンピックに参加。映像人類学を深めるべく、英国の大学院に進学しようか迷い中。 

Documentary Filmmaker. Third-Generation Zainichi Korean 

After graduating from university, Kiho identified the issue faced by high school students who were neither pursuing further education nor employment. To address this problem, they founded and managed an NPO aimed at helping these students. After stepping down as co-founder of the organisation in 2015, Kiho transitioned into documentary filmmaking. Their first project, a documentary on women's menstruation, was inspired by attending his sister’s childbirth and went on to be selected for several film festivals. 

Alongside filmmaking, Kiho works as a local producer and coordinator for international media outlets, including the BBC. The past work includes significant events such as the G20 Osaka Summit and the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Currently, he is considering furthering his studies in visual anthropology at a graduate school in the UK to deepen their expertise. 

Holly Stephens is Lecturer in Japanese and Korean Studies, and is a historian of Korea and Japan. Her research covers economic history, agriculture, empire, everyday life, village organizations, and the emergence of the modern state. Her current monograph project—Empire by Association: The Re-Organization of the Rural Economy in Modern Korea—uses previously unexamined farmers' diaries to examine the changes to Korean agriculture from the late nineteenth century through the colonial period amidst immense political upheaval. She has also published articles on cotton cultivation and the rice trade in colonial Korea that explore how life for Koreans changed during the early twentieth century in relation to new ideas about science and technology, Japanese imperialism, and Korea's incorporation into regional and global markets.

Sakie Chiba-Mooney a teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh and a teacher at the Scotland Japanese School. She has been teaching Japanese for over a decade, working with both university students during weekdays and young learners at the complementary school on Saturdays. Currently aiming to complete her PhD, her research investigates stakeholders' perceptions of the role of a Japanese complementary school in Scotland.