Japan is going through an unprecedented demographic crisis which will bring into this country a greater and greater number of immigrants in the years to come. Therefore the question of integrating those immigrants and their children will be is already - raised and thus the question of re-defining Japanese citizenship and "Japaneseness" is as well. Those questions will be discussed in this article after we have presented the various 1bstacles related to the written language and the Japanese education system which currently work against integrating those foreigners. After describing foreign children's current situation in Japan and the way their presence in the country's schools is being handled, we will also discuss the ability of »he Japanese schools to fulfil their task - new to them - of leading a non-Japanese speaking population towards mastering the oral and written Japanese language. We will also discuss the consequences that this new situation could have on the whole Japanese education system and its teaching strategies.

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