Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

306 SESSION V
a primitive community life and have not experienced
the usual community life. This is the biggest reason that
about 30% of Don Bosco Pugad students goes back to
street life. I also know of small money trouble—cheated
on money. This innocent incident shows the difficulty
of changing one’s culture.
It can almost be called as cultural gap. We respond to
this matter by setting business internship period. The
two boys who passed the official Japanese language test
are studying IT skills and also working for one private
Japanese language school as interns. The school staff
checks their daily manners and discipline; still, we need
to take other actions. For example, the students of Don
Bosco Tondo are brought up with strict discipline
under the church policy. If one student has trouble like
theft or violence, the church washes him up right off.
This strict management system is closely related to its
high employment rate. We also might have strict rules
in the school regulations.
There is another difficult and fundamental problem in
the activity frame. It is not easy to judge whether we
should deeply care about international labor demand
or not. It must be a hot issue because encouragement
of emigration results in brain-drain problems in the
long term. We do not intend to promote economic
colonization by Japanese companies in the Philippines.
But, on the other hand, most of Japanese IT companies
hiring Filipino engineers are bothered with jobhopping
of their Filipino employees to U.S. companies.
It is obvious that there are few decent job opportunities
for young poor people in the Philippines. Everyone
has a right to get better jobs. We cannot avoid this in
globalization. However, it was impressive that almost
all of Filipinos I interviewed during my research asked
me about job opportunities in Japan for young poor
Filipinos. It is interesting to note that I got this criticism
from the Japanese.
FUTURE PLAN
Our graduates who get jobs in Japanese companies in
Manila often need to stay long in Japan for training. We
must take immigration issues into consideration sooner
or later as the Japanese society are still prejudiced to
foreign workers. Hence, we should prepare to support
the daily and legal needs of our graduates in Japan.
Fortunately, API Fellow Allan Villarante offered to
support me regarding this matter. He stayed in Japan to
conduct researcher on OFWs and migration problems.
OFWs in the medical industry are coming to Japan
after the conclusion of FTA between Japan and the
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
Philippines. After the conditions become clear, we
should consider again whether medical education
support is needed or not.
Lastly, we should try to expand the activity because
there are many young poor people. No one knows the
exact statistics of young poor street children. In the
case of street children, the numbers are all different.
This is because there is no common definition of street
children. It is clear though that the unemployment rate
of this country is almost 10% and half of the jobless
workers are under 24 years old. In the future, we will
try to expand our program in other countries such as
Vietnam that has a potential labor market, especially in
IT industry like the Philippines.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This challenging project was supported by many people
whom I met after becoming an API Fellow. Tatsuya
Tanami, Michiko Taki, and Makiko Ogihara (The
Nippon Foundation) and Naoko Maeno and Satoko
Yasuhara (CSEAS Kyoto University) supported me in
Japan. Dr. Jose M. Cruz and Cecille Bartolome (Ateneo
de Manila University) and Russell Q. Tabisula (The
Nippon Foundatio-Philippines) supported not only
the research but also my daily life in Manila. I would
have not completed my research without Russell. Miho
Sakuma (Kobe University, API Fellow) and Shinichiro
Kato (PhilNITS) also contributed much to my research.
They willingly introduced me to their friends who were
related to IT industry and vocational support in Manila.
I would also like to say thanks to Mizuki Endo (Kyusyu
University, API Fellow) and Dr. Tai Lee Min (Asian
Development Bank, API Fellow) for spending much
time with me at the weekend party and introducing me
to their exciting friends.
It was a fantastic experience to discuss various subjects of
globalization with other API Fellows and scholars who
researched various themes. Through the discussions with
them, I understood that we all were trying to change
this globalization age for the better and our various
subjects were related to each other deeply. Specifically,
Allan Jose J. Villarante (House of Representatives, API
Fellow), Dr. Seiji Kageyama (Kanazawa University, API
Fellow) and Dr. Denis B. Batangan (Ateneo de Manila
University) inspired me very much. Their advice
regarding OFWs, especially Filipino medical workers,
and FTA between Japan and the Philippines was quite
fecund.
On the vocational training activity, I would like to
show my appreciation to the great couple—Dr. Isagani