Haruki Murakami and His Early Work: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Running Artist

Abstract

schools, Chinese schools, schools for Brazilians, schools for South Americans, and International Schools. Okano states that these nonformal schools provide additional education for students who are struggling, and provide a place of belonging. They help maintain the culture and heritage language for migrant children. There have been attempts to bridge nonformal education with formal education. One example is the Rainbow Bridging Program, which connected three Latin American schools with one university, several non-profit organizations, two school boards, two Anglican youth organizations and one welfare organization. This project helped migrant children learn both Japanese and their mother language so the students could enter formal learning institutions. Even though there have been more programs and initiatives to help migrant and marginalized students, Okano points out that for various reasons such as a curriculum that is not relevant to some students are not able to take advantage of these initiatives. Even if these students are able to attend formal education schools, the curriculum is often not relevant to their concerns. I believe this book is a valuable contribution to the English literature on the present state of Japanese education. Okano demonstrates an extensive knowledge of the field and her writing is thoughtful and well argued. This book deserves to be read by anyone interested in recent developments in Japanese education.