• Takayoshi Beppu The Graduate school of Education, the University of Tokyo

• Sawako Shirahase TCJS Director

Long-term absence is a high concern among the OECD countries because the phenomenon tends to lead to social exclusion later in life. Also in Japan, long-term absence, which usually means futôkô (that can be translated into school non-attendance) is the main category used in Japan to register children in the long-term absence and has been a high concern. However, the relationship between futôkô and social exclusion stays unclear there. It is partly because the research regarding futôkô has been inclined to the children who use private institutions placed outside of their schools such as “free schools” or “alternative schools” and there has been less focus on the children who do not use those institutions and are interpreted to have much more needs of support. In my presentation, the reality of futôkô such children’s experiences will be discussed through the ethnography of a public educational facility for children of futôkô.

Takayoshi Beppu is a Ph.D. student in the Graduate school of Education at the University of Tokyo. His research concern centers on the transition of students who used to be categorized as school non-attendance(futôkô). He tries to clarify when and how school non-attendance would connect to social exclusion in current Japan through ethnographic research on students themselves, their guardians, schools, or public sectors such as education boards or welfare sectors.