Remembering our migrants this Christmas

As the whole world prepares to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us remember all our migrants who are separated from their loved ones this season.

In their hearts, our migrants deeply long to be with their families for Christmas - “kung mawawala ka sa piling ko sinta, paano ang Paskong alay ko sa'yo?”

We especially remember our migrants we interacted with during our Toyo University CESDES field research about Filipinos in Japan 2025 from October to December.

Synchronized with the schedule of the various teams from the Philippine government agency, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, we visited Nagoya, Gifu, Shizuoka, Saitama, and Kanto areas.

Allow us to share some initial research highlights here starting with this statistical overview gathered with Hiroya Takamatsu-sensei of Musashino University.

As Japan moved towards top position among the global economies from the 70s, it became a significant destination for foreigners, including Filipinos.

From 708,458 in 1970, as of June 2025, the number of foreigners in Japan increased to 3,956,619. Filipinos constituted about 9% of total foreigners in Japan from 2010 until June 2025.

From only hundreds from 1950s until the 1970s, the number of Filipinos in Japan started to accelerate especially from the 1990s until June 2025 (349,714) and have remained among the top five most populous nationals in Japan.

The predominantly-male Filipino migrants until the early 1970s were superseded in numbers by the surge in numbers of Filipino female migrants up till 2024, in most age groups, except for ages 10-14, 25-29, and 30-34.

Most number of Filipinos were observed in the following prefectures 1.) Tokyo, 2.) Chiba, 3.) Kanagawa, 4.) Aichi, 5.) Saitama, 6.) Shizuoka, 7.) Ibaraki, 8.)  Gunma, 9.) Nagano, and, 10.) Osaka.

Mie and Hiroshima also figured among the 10 top prefectures with more Filipinos in 2020, replacing Nagano.

During the field research, these were among the issues and concerns shared by our migrants.

One, an often-raised problem focused on cultural and language gap experienced both by children, adult, and elderly migrants throughout their entry, work, and stay in Japan.

Two, due to lack of any Japanese language training and knowledge before they were brought to Japan by their Filipino parent, many Filipino children experience difficulty entering Japanese high schools. They also experience adjustment problems in their classes and with their classmates, schoolmates in school. This linguistic difficulty, including bullying cases, leads to problems in the education of Filipino children and students in Japan.

Three, low educational achievement/aspiration has been observed as well among many Filipino migrant students content with finishing high school because they are able to find jobs with wages they deem sufficient for them.

Four, stress and mental health have also emerged as a serious concern affecting migrant Filipinos across age groups.

As more trainees are sent to Japan and as more Filipino migrants are tending to settle in Japan with long-term and permanent visas, generational problems have been observed with job-related issues (wages, other work terms/conditions), fake certificates/marriages affecting those newly entered or on shorter residence stay, and, family, health/care problems among the elderly migrants.

Private as well as public groups and agencies have organized together to respond to these issues and concerns and assist distressed migrants in Japan, including Filipino migrants.

Cultural, language, education assistance/support initiatives and projects have been organized and are ongoing for various age groups among the migrants.

These positive assistance and responses involve migrants organizing among themselves as support group, PPOs with Japanese and/or Filipino/foreign advocates and/or local government, diplomatic offices, and international agencies.

These private/public, multisectoral ongoing responses assisting, supporting distressed migrants are inspiring and actual models of ongoing multicultural collaboration and integration much needed and encouraged in creating a better, harmonious world for all where, despite diversity, genuine unity is welcomed and practiced.