Message from the representatives Message

Kageyama, one of the representatives who grew up as a “Gaijin” back in 1990’s during the depression in a regional town was angry with the unequal society. At the same time, he knew one day, he could become what he wanted to be , as long as he tried and worked hard.

Shibayama, the other representative felt something was wrong with the society where each individual is expected to take care of oneself when she was supporting immigrant youths. And through a collaboration with a company, she saw how helping-hands of adults could motivate immigrant youths and help them grow.

In the spring of 2017, the two of us were planning a career guidance for immigrant youths at a Tokyo metropolitan high school. We started talking about creating a place for immigrant youths where they can help each other and learn from each other. That is how glolab, a laboratory to develop global persons started.

We have met someone who cannot keep up with high school classes in Japan despite his academic ability in his home country. We have met someone who dropped out of high school because he felt he did not belong there even though he had entered the high school with dreams and hopes. We have also met someone who wanted to move onto the next stage of education but he didn’t have anyone to talk to about that and instead he got a job to make money. We have met youths in different circumstances. But we can say with certainty that all young people have a margin of growth.

No matter what their background or circumstances may be, there is always a margin of growth. There is no optimal solution to the growth curve of life. With ownership in life, one will find a way as long as he makes the efforts.

We want to provide opportunities for immigrant youths to see and learn for themselves how to deal with such “adversity” from those who have lived the same experience before them. Through partnerships with the community, companies and experts, we want to maximize the potentials of immigrant youths. And we want immigrant youths to become capable of solving their problems on their own by having ownership in their lives. That is the kind of community we want to create in order to realize a society that is rich and strong.