Investigating multiethnic students' learning of their heritage languages at Japanese universities

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Our research goal for 2022 was to continue our data collection and analysis. We interviewed the participants and observed how they had been using their heritage languages in and outside their homes.Our findings suggested that those who had already graduated from university had fewer opportunities to use their heritage language than when they were students. We also found that those heritage speakers can intentionally avoid using their heritage language, and instead choose to speak in Japanese in some contexts in order to keep a distance from their parents, who are not proficient in Japanese.In November 2022, we organized a symposium at Kanda University of International Studies on heritage language education in Japan. The first part was a plenary speech by Dr. Kimi Kondo-Brown at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on heritage language education in the US. The second part was a panel discussion by Japanese university students with heritage language backgrounds. This symposium provided us with a chance to listen to the voices of heritage language speakers and understand how ethnic and linguistic minorities are living in Japan. It was also a great opportunity to think about how Japanese society should support ethnic and linguistic minorities.