Cross-cultural communication （144）　

144) Potential Japanese Helper Discovered!
For two weeks at the end of October 2023, the FamilyMart, one of the most popular convenience stores in Japan at Kobe Rokko Island Island Center Station, where I buy the Nikkei Morning Edition every morning before work, was closed for renovation. So I went to another Family Mart across the station, a little further away. There, I made a small discovery. During peak hours in the morning, when there are many commuters and students shopping, there are usually three cashiers. However, every morning, all two or three of them were young men of Indian or Pakistani descent with dark, rugged features. Most of these foreign staff members spoke Japanese fluently and not only followed the manual but also handled situations flexibly, remaining calm and accurate in their Japanese.

Now, these Indian and Pakistani young people are the ones I pass by every week four times a day in the connecting passageway at Uozaki Station, where I transfer from the Rokko Liner to the Hanshin Namba Line. Over the past few years, their numbers have increased so much that it's surprising. At first, I thought they were students from the Canadian Academy (CA), an international school. However, according to a well-informed friend from Rokko Island, most of them are students at the Illustration and Design Department of Art College Kobe, a vocational school on the island. Based on this, I suspect that the employees at Family Mart are also likely to be part-time students from the same school. Setting aside my misunderstanding, I believe that the school they attend is more a reflection of their parents' financial status than their own abilities. In fact, the tuition fees at CA are more than ten times that of a vocational school. Therefore, the school they attend is a separate matter from their own abilities.

That made me think that these young people of Indian and Pakistani descent, who are proficient in Japanese and have adapted well to life in Japan, might hold the key to saving Japan, which is facing a declining birthrate and shrinking population. Most of them are fluent in English. Additionally, they possess a hunger for success that CA students lack, which also contributes to their rapid improvement in Japanese. They give the impression of being resilient and thriving in Japan, a foreign country for them. There is an English expression, “street-wise” which means gaining practical knowledge and skills through daily life in the city and rising to success. In a positive sense, they are truly street-wise.

Kobe is a city with a history of welcoming foreigners since the Meiji Restoration, including Chinese immigrants known as “Kakyo, Overseas Chinese” and Russians who fled during the Russian Revolution. These people have settled in Kobe and become an integral part of the city. I sincerely hope that young people from India and Pakistan will also become valuable assets to Kobe and Japan.

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