Foreign students in Japan are in trouble because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
"I lost my income because the place where I worked part-time was closed in April. I live off my savings now," said Kelvin Tang in mid-August. Tang is a 22-year-old student from Indonesia who is a senior at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) in Beppu, Oita Prefecture.
Tang, who is studying environmental science and sociology, was working part-time at a university co-op but was not allowed to work there after access to the university was restricted due to the spread of the virus.
His spending has increased, too. At the beginning of this year, he rented a house in the city with four friends and left his university dormitory.
However, two of his roommates returned to their home countries during spring vacation and never came back because the university began offering online classes in the first half of the school year. Thus, Tang has to pay double what he previously paid.
Scholarships cover his rent and tuition fees, but he cut down on the variety of food he eats because "I need to save money for the future," he said.
After graduation, he plans to attend graduate school at the University of Tokyo. He said that he is not sure he will be able to find a part-time job in Tokyo.
Half of APU's students are foreign students, and many of them work part-time at inns and restaurants in the Beppu onsen hot spring area. However, there have been many cases of students living a hard life, being unable to work as much due to fewer tourists coming to the area.
To cope with this, volunteer graduates and teachers in late April established APU Hands, an organization to support foreign and Japanese students in need. In addition to distributing food several times a month and introducing them to part-time jobs, the group is calling for support from graduates in Japan and abroad through social media. So far, they have collected masks, food and donations.
"I wanted to support foreign students who are working hard far away from their homes," said APU Hands Representative Mayumi Ehara, 38, a company employee and a graduate of the university.
Yoshinobu Okada, 36, another representative and a company employee, added, "I'm happy if this program helps them grow into people who can also give a helping hand to others in need in the future."
There are also foreign students trying to support their compatriots who are facing difficulties.
"I was late because I didn't know the way."
On Aug. 23, Nguyen Van Bao, a 22-year-old student from Vietnam studying at a vocational business school in Tokyo, read this Japanese conversational sentence aloud at a temple in Minato Ward, Tokyo. Vietnamese technical intern trainees repeated the sentence after him.
Nichietsu Tomoiki Shienkai, a nonprofit organization based in the temple that supports Vietnamese in Japan, provides temporary protection and support for reemploying interns, foreign students and others who were fired from their jobs amid the spread of the coronavirus or who ran away because of poor working conditions.
Bao helps with the organization's activities and acts as an interpreter to get information such as where the trainees worked, the circumstances of their dismissal and their current residency status.
While the complaints from trainees about poor conditions sometimes make him angry, Bao also remains hopeful.
"In the future, I want to work in Japan and make use of my experience in Vietnam. One day, I would like to study at a Japanese university."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
