A GREENER pasture in Japan awaits Ines Yamanouchi P. Mallari, being a Japanese descendant, but she stayed in Davao City to fulfill her heart’s desire to serve.
At present, Mallari is the president and administrator of Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku (MKD) and at the same time the president and school directress of Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School (PNJKIS), both based in Davao City.
She is also president of the National Federation of Nikkei Jin Kai in the Philippines since 2012, the first female to take on the post, and chairman of the Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai, Inc. Davao City since 2015.
“Aside from my being indebted to my organization, I understand that there are only few young Japanese descendants who are left to help our organization here in Davao. If I will leave for Japan, who else will help,” she said, pertaining to the two educational institutions that she has learned to love.
She also said that realizing the vision and mission of MKD and PNJKIS keeps her motivated to stay.
“I also want to help continue what was established by our forefathers in Davao. Most importantly, I want to become a living bridge that will help connect the two countries and conduct activities to strengthen the friendly relationship between Japan and Philippines,” she said.
Her mother was half-Japanese whose father was from Kagoshima while her father was from Cebu but the couple migrated to Davao City where they raised 10 children. Ines is the seventh child. Only she and their eldest are in Davao while the rest of their siblings are already settled in Japan.
A third generation descendant from Calinan, at 18 she was sent to a one-year Intermediate Study in Japanese Language at the Tama Educational Center (TEC), Tokyo, Japan (1991) to be able to teach Nihongo to Japanese descendants here.
She returned and pursued her Bachelor of Arts Major in English Literature studies at the Holy Cross College of Calinan and graduated in 1993. Yet, during those years in college, she was already working at the Calinan Socio-Ecological Development Organization (Casedo), also a Japanese-backed organization that helped educate communities on ecological preservation and planted trees in around 40 public school campuses all over Davao City.
She taught Nihongo to Japanese descendants and Filipino children alike for free on Sundays while she was connected with Casedo for eight years.
When Mallari left Casedo, she became a board member of PNJKIS in 1996 and was later hired as school administrator in 2001. She initiated reforms in crafting policies and was instrumental in professionalizing the school by hiring licensed teachers. A year later, MKD also opened. Both schools became accredited by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (Paascu). They also got recognition from the Bureau of Immigration so they could accept foreign students and the Commission on Higher Education (Ched).
The vibrant Japanese education movement here encouraged Japanese Shinzo Abe and his wife to include in their itinerary a visit to PNJKIS and MKD during the official visit last January 2016.
“Seeing our graduates, including Filipinos, land great jobs in our partner multinational companies, who have been sponsoring scholars, or in Japan to give their families better lives is already a great fulfillment,” Mallari, who was yesterday conferred the Datu Bago Award, added.