Some areas short of Japanese-language teachers for children with foreign roots

Isn't mentioned in the article but we all know the shortage of teachers is because of the slave like wages.

These children just need lower level of Japanese, like when you start any language.

And if they are Japanese in Japan, they should have the basis from their Japanese parent.

Japanese kids come to elementary school already knowing Japanese. Teachers help them learn to read and write, and they help the kids develop more sophisticated vocabulary and grammar. But they aren't teaching kids Japanese from the start. Elementary school first graders already typically have a strong command of the language. Kids who grew up in another language learning Japanese? Completely different situation requiring completely different teachers.

If Japan wants more JFL/JSL teachers, universities need to create more JFL/JSL degree programs. Generic education programs aren't going to help with this. Much of what Japanese teachers know about how to teach Japanese needs to be thrown out the window when it the class shifts to second-language or foreign-language. Learning a different language activates different parts of the brain. The teacher and student need to start in different places and work through a different progression of language. How to teach a child starting Japanese as a six-year-old is different from how to teach a child starting as a ten-year-old, which is different from how to teach someone starting as a fifteen-year-old.

Lumping the second-language learners in with general Japanese is a recipe for disaster. Want to have an immigrant population? Education costs go up. Japan will have to create specialized university degree programs. Schools will have to open special, smaller classes in schools for these students. Schools likely will have to pay the specialized teachers more. It requires building space, personnel, a curriculum, training, and a lot of other support.

Kids are entitled to receiving basic education. It is also stipulated in Article 26:2 of the Constitution as a national obligation (ensuring such entitlement by state and adult people). At stake is whether and how much it should be applied to non-Japanese nationals. Making an integration policy is necessary and urgent.

Sink or swim, kids!

Licenses and degree requirements create an artificiality and adjust supply. Wages (or lack thereof commensurate with degrees and licenses) do the same. Either remove license and degree requirements and pay the same, or keep license and degree requirements and pay more.

I remember back in the States, schools in a southern state were lamenting they couldn't find quality teachers. They paid $28,000. Who can afford to pay for licenses and degrees required, nevermind a home?

Good comments, Mikey. I would also add, don't do those things at your own future peril. You want slums of people with low functional language skills? Integration will only be accomplished with education, no language skills = no education.

There are plenty of "Japanese" language teachers. They are looking for Japanese language teachers to teach students who can not speak Japanese or have limited Japanese skills!

Elementary school teachers here teach "Japanese", in their classrooms!

This article is poorly written. Consider the following;

Some areas in Japan are struggling to secure enough public school personnel to teach Japanese to children with foreign roots, amid a recent surge in the number of such students in the country, according to a Kyodo News survey.

They are looking for JSL certified or licensed teachers, THAT is a problem, but the problem could be fixed by putting kids into ES or JHS classes for learning Japanese. I have seen JHS kids take Japanese language classes in the elementary school near the JHS, 4 days a week, to work on their basic Japanese skills, the kids I am talking about knew no Japanese, but were dropped into a JHS by their adopted father, and the local BOE worked with the JHS and ES to gets these kids up to speed.

If there is a will there is a way!

Learn it yourself that is the best way

Hiring repeaters not teachers.

Sakuma suggested it is necessary to improve remuneration and other conditions for Japanese-language teachers to secure adequate personnel at schools.

There you go-money and conditions...