After spending most of his childhood abroad, Atsushi Furuiye returned to a Japan that made him feel like a stranger. Following an experience of reverse culture shock and its subsequent adjustment period, he began to spend time with other returnees. It is when he found that others had had some experiences similar to his, that he became interested in all that pertained to the "Kikokushijo". A Kikokushijo is a person who has returned home to Japan after being away. Atsushi explains the term: "Kikoku literally means to come back to one’s own country. The word ‘shijo’ is sometimes controversial. In daily usage, ‘shi’ stands for children and ‘jo’ for women. The word ‘Shijo’ is a classic and currently legal term meaning children, both boys and girls. The use of ‘Kikokushijo’ is slightly derogatory and literally means the repatriated children."

Atsushi’s interest in those who have returned to Japan lead to his job at a monthly magazine published by the non-profit organization Japan Overseas Educational Services. "The magazine focuses on the education of Japanese children living abroad and those returning. The job gives me great opportunity to meet teachers, parents and students. In the 1980’s I co-founded a group called Meta-Culture which was the first self-help organization for Japanese ‘Kikokushijo’ children. Drawing on a list of people I had known from these organizations, I could count on about 300 potential readers for the original printed version of ‘Shijo-Tsuchin’. I started Shijo-Tsuchin because the Japan Overseas Educational Services magazine I write for is somewhat limiting and doesn’t allow for more exploration of personal experiences."

Atsushi started the newsletter Shijo-Tsushin in 1995 as a forum and support system for returnees and expatriate Japanese. The Web version of the newsletter began a year later. "I can see some good reasons to keep up the effort:" he says, "it is a place where troubled people can come and voice their problems and suffering, thus inviting others to extend them support and help. Writing our own thoughts, however controversial or challenging to what the academicians say about the topic, contributes to the understanding of our experiences. Sharing the experiences of the sojourn and return with others who have never experienced it, helps to raise understanding in the general public, which in turn makes it easier to adapt/readapt to the culture. We have also started to translate some of the writings into English to further open dialogue with returnees of other nations, and this has really helped to show that our experience is not culture-specific."

In Japan there has always been a sort of social stigma relating to those who are not like everybody else. A well-known Japanese proverb explains this well: If a nail sticks out, hammer it down. For those Japanese that have traveled abroad, returning home can sometimes be more than just a personal experience of culture shock. The returnee can be made to feel like an outcast as was Atsushi’s experience, back in the 1970’s. At that time, the number of Japanese living abroad was much lower than it is now. Now, as the numbers increase and the returnees become more numerous, the situation has developed into something more acceptable.

Furuiye explains the transition and its repercussions in his Brief History of Being Kikokushijo(URL:http://www.roots-int. com/ S-T/extra/kikoku-e.html ). "Up to about a decade ago, the "Kikokushijo were regarded as people who had lost their Japanese attitudes and were not welcome in most jobs" he says. "Then came the time when "bilin-gals" were a fad. Kikokushijo girls were often seen appearing on television, and they conveyed the image of Americanized and therefore modernized young ladies who are fluent in English. They were idolized. Because of international development by major companies, the Kikokushijo were in high demand. Being a ‘Kikokushijo" had then become something that everyone envied. Now that the economic bubble has collapsed, it seems that the kikokushijo" are neither envied nor despised, though they are still regarded as "special" in some ways. It has become more of a common phenomenon, and now teachers and fellow students in metro areas are no longer afraid of receiving a transfer student from abroad.

While the treatment of the returnees has changed in our society, a change has occurred in the lives of the expatriates themselves. As more full-time Japanese schools and "jukus" (cramming schools to prepare children for the infamous entrance examinations) have sprung up abroad, these children are expected to spend all their time in Japanese environments, studying diligently for their return to Japan. Today, in places where there are a lot of Japanese expatriates, the children are facing the pressures of entrance exams as much as they would be at home. This has been resulting in lesser exposure to the local societies and languages, which means that these children are less ‘special’ or different from the children who have never left Japan. As a ‘kikokushijo’ who returned in earlier times, I am one who was here in the dark days and what I had hoped to see as the number of Japanese abroad increased was a more diverse and multi-cultural society. I had hoped that the ‘kikokushijo’ who are different and ‘special’ would become a factor that would open up the homogeneity of this society. While it is true that the ‘kikokushijo’ are regarded as less special in this era, that is not because the society has become more open-minded, but rather because the ‘kikokushijo’ themselves are less "special". I believe that unless the current trend of how the Japanese children are raised abroad should reverse and give more importance to bringing back what is impossible to breed at home, the battle to open up this society will fall more and more on real foreigners."

The experiences of Japanese returnees are exposed and explored in the Shijo-Tsushin newsletter and Website, for the well-being of the returnees as well as the benefit of Japanese society's view on what lies beyond its known cultural boundaries.

MAGAZINE