Its been about 6 months since I've updated this blog. Since then I've fallen more and more in love with Japan and its culture. Rob and I have been taking Japanese language classes. It's such a hard language! We are determined to learn as much as we can while living here though. =)
I have had the honor of volunteering at a Japanese infant orphanage. The orphanage is a wonderful place. The workers take the best care they can for the babies and try to provide the best life for them. As a volunteer, my job is just to hold babies. Because they don't have parents in the traditional sense, these babies need all the snuggles and love they can get.
I was surprised one day to discover that some of these babies actually have parents that visit. I've done a little bit of research into these Japanese orphans.
My understanding is that there are about 40,000 children in Japanese orphanages. What struck me as even more surprising is that only about 9% ever get adopted. It turns out that most of the children in Japanese orphanages still have parents.
There is a stigma to adoption in Japan because of Koseki. Koseki is an elaborate record of every Japanese person's family history. If a child of a family is listed as having been given up for adoption, it potentially brings shame upon the family. Employers and potential spouses can look up these public records and would view this as a scandal within the family. Because of this, when a family gives up a child to an orphanage - due to abuse, neglect, or a host of other reasons - they often don't put the child as available for adoption. If they don't sign the child away, there won't be a blight on their family's Koseki. Some families visit their children and try to help. Others, however, leave their child to be raised by the orphanage. Even if there is a documented history of abuse, families don't have to give up their rights to the child.
Because family and bloodlines are such an important part of this society, adopting a child also has a stigma. It is viewed as strange and shameful. If a Japanese family adopts, the family will often move to a new city and tell their new neighbors that the adopted child is their own so that no one knows of the adoption.
I think extremely high of the orphanage that I have volunteered at and I think the workers are amazing and are the doing the very best they can. Unfortunately, the nature of such an institution is flawed. Orphans are offered very little help throughout their lives. As they grow up, education becomes more difficult to attain. Without an education it is extremely difficult to succeed in Japan. When the orphan is a child of a criminal, potential employers look them up on the Koseki and will probably not hire them because of their family history.
I can't stress enough how wonderful my experience with the orphanage has been. I am, however, surprised at this kind of thinking in a culture I consider so progressive.
