Listening to Teachers’ Needs — The BATJ Project Building Stronger School Networks across Scotland

Meeting teachers at 9 Schools (2–6 June 2025)

In June 2025, a total of fifteen Japanese sessions were delivered at nine schools across Scotland, as part of a joint initiative between the Japan Foundation, London and Japanese language teachers from the University of Edinburgh. The programme was supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.

Although this school visit project was separate from the BATJ Project (which focuses on building community-based networks for Japanese language education in Scotland), it offered an invaluable opportunity to meet many school teachers and listen to their perspectives on the current needs of Japanese language education. We aim to share these insights with other Japanese language educators and use them to further promote Japanese language education across the UK — one of BATJ’s key goals. Bring Japan to Your Classroom! ーTouring Schools in Scotland Among the Scottish pupils we met, many were familiar with Japanese anime but had never met a Japanese person in real life. Their cheerful greetings of “Konnichiwa!” (Hello) and “Arigato!” (Thank you) showed their curiosity and excitement about learning Japanese. The nine schools we visited are shown on the map below.

Five types of Japanese sessions were prepared to suit different age groups, from primary to secondary school students. Schools selected sessions based on their interests and needs.

A: Quiz about Japan

B: Introduction to Japanese writing systems 

C-1: Making badges in Japanese for primary schools

C-2: Making badges in Japanese for secondary schools

D: Origami

The most popular programme was “Introduction to Japanese Writing Systems”, followed by a creative activity where pupils made badge pins using the Katakana or Kanji characters they had learned. Many students wrote their names in Japanese, took part in quizzes about the history of Japanese scripts, and interacted with visiting teachers from Japan — gaining not only linguistic but also cultural insights.

Teachers at the schools commented on how delighted they were to collaborate with the Japan Foundation and the project team, as this gave their pupils a rare chance to experience Japanese language and culture directly.

At the same time, many teachers also expressed that they wished to respond better to their pupils’ growing interest in Japan but lacked sufficient knowledge or confidence about Japanese language and culture.

For the BATJ project members, who are working to promote Japanese language education in Scotland through networking activities, this school visit offered a valuable opportunity to listen directly to teachers’ voices. It was an experience that proved meaningful for both the teachers and the project members alike because it helped deepen mutual understanding, provided information on how to start Japanese clubs, and strengthened networks between schools and project members.

Through this collaboration, the networking project and the Japanese Taster sessions created a meaningful synergy — advancing our shared goal of promoting Japanese language education in Scotland.

As a result of these efforts to build networks with Scottish teachers, several schools have now decided to launch Japanese clubs, marking the beginning of a new phase for Japanese language education in Scotland.

The project team members from the two organising institutions, together with the Japanese language teachers who supported the school visits, were as follows:

• Japan Foundation London Japanese Cultural Centre: Kazuya Takahashi, Tomoko Semba

• University of Edinburgh, Department of Asian Studies: Fumiko Narumi-Munro, Atsuko Moriyama

• Session Supporters: Ayumi Kumagai, Hitomi North

Report by Atsuko Moriyama