FIGT Japan Affiliate

Year Established: 2019
Type: Geographical
Gathering:  In-person
Languages: Japanese and English
Contact: japan@figt.org
Facebook Page

Our mission/ミッション:

To connect researchers and research consumers whose interests concern Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and multicultural, multilingual and transnational families in the local (Japanese) context.
外国にルーツを持つ子供・帰国児童生徒など、多文化・多言語の環境で育った子どもたちに関わる人（当事者・研究者・ご家族・教育者など）同士がつながり、情報を共有する場を提供します。

To collect narratives of TCK experiences in the local (Japanese) context and to share them in forms of publications, presentations or research.

（日本国内における）外国にルーツを持つ子供・帰国児童生徒など、多文化・多言語の環境で育った人たちのストーリーを集め、刊行物・発表・研究報告として発信します。

Our events/主なイベント:

Seasonal social dinners (spring, summer and winter)
年３回（春夏冬）の食事会

Yearly workshop and/or lecture (in February or March)
年１回（２月または３月頃）の勉強会または講演会

Leadership

Aiko Minematsu is an adult TCK residing in Tokyo, Japan. Enrolled in seven elementary schools in Japan and the USA because of her father’s job, her childhood was a constant move between different cultures. She holds an MA in TESOL from Teachers College Columbia University and a secondary school teaching license for teaching English in Japan. She has taught English to returnee students in Japan for over ten years, and currently is a university lecturer in Tokyo, teaching English for academic purposes. Her research interests are identity trajectories of TCKs, language education and multilingualism, and teacher education. Her life goal is to empower TCKs in Japan through education.

Saeko Mizuta is a Japanese entrepreneur in the education technology space (https://www.tckwshop.com/). While attending Harvard Business School as a Fulbright scholar, she founded TCK Workshop, an online education company that supports bilingual children to survive the social, cultural and academic challenges involved in international relocation. TCK is funded and incorporated in Japan and has rapidly grown to a popular online tutoring solution for 500+ students in thirty cities and twenty countries around the world. Being a TCK who finds both Japan and the US a semi-home, she hopes to increase the number of children who see the benefits of their TCK experience, and foster their cultural awareness and the ability to lead in diversity. She has TEDxFulbright talk on this topic.