Meet the Japanese Kurds

In a classroom in Warabi, north of Tokyo, an 11-year-old boy chatters in Japanese as he practises writing the characters for “river” and “tree”. The scene is unremarkable, save for the fact that the boy, Boran, is not Japanese but Kurdish. Warabi and the surrounding area are home to around 2,000 Turkish Kurds, a number that has quadrupled in a decade. Kebab shops line the streets and instructions on sorting rubbish are written in Turkish. The area is known locally as “Warabistan”.