| Municipalities and immigrants in Japan |
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Since the 1970s, some of Japanese municipalities have been slowly but steadily constructing a policy of accommodation in response to the increase of de facto immigrants in Japan. (For more detail, read Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak, "How Far Kokusaika? Possibilities Created by Immigration to Japan," Social Science Japan, No.4, August 1995, and Chikako Kashiwazaki, "Local Government Response to the Growth of Foreign Resident Population," paper for the project on "Transformation of Japanese Communities and the Emerging Local Agenda" by Japan Center for International Exchange.) Basically there are two types of municipalities in Japan when we look at their policies and measures on migrant residents. The first group of municipalities are those which have responded to the demands of mainly Korean residents for equal treatment as members of local communities since the 1970s. The second group of municipalities are those which have reacted to the rapid increase of foreign residents, mainly Brazilians of Japanese descent, in the 1990s. The first type: Kawasaki City, Osaka City The second type: Hamamatsu City. Websites of Japanese municipalities do not contain any information on the profile of their foreign population nor their policies and measures about them. However, in some cases you can get relevant information from the websites of "international associations," which were set up by many municipalities in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. They are "private" organizations, but mostly funded and staffed by the municipalities. Their purpose is to promote "international exchange" at a local level. Many websites of international associations are multilingual! Kawasaki International Association (founded in 1989) International House Osaka (founded in 1987) Hamamatsu Foundation for International Communications and Exchanges (founded in 1982) Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications The Ministry is in charge of national policies regarding muniucipalities in Japan. It has been actively promoting "regional internationalization" since the late 1980s. Regional Internationalization: "There is an ongoing effort to promote a wide variety of measures for internationalization. For example, we are promoting the world's largest human exchange project (the Japan Exchange and Teaching [JET] Program) that is intended to promote international exchange or improve language education on a regional level. On top of that, we are supporting regional internationalization through international cooperative activities. For example, we are promoting the reception of local governments staff from overseas in training, as well as supporting the internationalisation of local authorities through overseas offices that are placed in New York, London, Paris, Seoul and Singapore for the shared benefit of various local governments." International Affairs Division, Local Administration Bureau Council of Local Authorities for International Relations(CLAIR, Tokyo): Founded in July 1988 as "a joint organisation of local authorities to promote and provide support in conjunction with the increasing concern for local level internationalization in Japan". Japan Intercultural Academy of Municipalities (JIAM, Ohtsu): Founded in April 1993. it aims to "to help local governments address the task of promoting efficiency in their administrative efforts by responding appropriately to the evolving needs resulting from globalization, and to assist municipalities in their aim of nurturing personnel with higher levels of ability for managing globalization-related matters." Updated January 2003 | Home |