With the government planning to accept up to about 340,000 new foreign workers over five years, harmonious coexistence between Japanese and those workers will likely be an issue. In parts of Japan where many foreigners live now, people are already learning from experience.
On a sunny Saturday earlier this month, foreigners living in Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture, participated with officials of the Oizumi Town Office, officers from the Oizumi Police Station of the Gunma prefectural police and others in a futsal event in the neighboring town of Ora in the prefecture.
In the past, Brazilians and Peruvians were only foreigners who participated in this exchange event. However, two years ago, technical intern trainees from Indonesia started to join in. Foreign technical intern trainees tend to have few opportunities to interact with Japanese people outside their workplace.
"It's fun to meet and talk with many people," said a 20-year-old Indonesian technical intern trainee. "I hope there will be more opportunities like this." This is the second year for him to stay in Japan as a technical intern trainee.
In Oizumi, where the manufacturing industry is thriving, the number of foreign residents surged after the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law was revised in 1990 to allow second- and third-generation descendants of Japanese emigrants to work in Japan.
As of the end of October, foreign residents totaled 7,589, accounting for more than 18 percent of the town's population. There has been friction between Japanese and foreign residents over issues such as waste disposal and nighttime noise.
According to a survey conducted in 2016 by the Gunma prefectural government, 58.3 percent of foreign residents in the prefecture said they wanted to settle in Japan, and 67 percent said they wanted to actively interact with Japanese people.
On the other hand, only 11.7 percent of Japanese respondents said they wanted to actively interact with foreign residents. "There are only a few opportunities for [Japanese] residents to associate with foreigners and there are some people who don't like an increase in the number of foreigners," said a Japanese woman who runs a liquor shop in Oizumi.
The key to harmonious coexistence is efforts to encourage face-to-face encounters between Japanese and non-Japanese residents so they can build relationships. The town has encouraged both types of residents to understand each other by issuing a PR magazine in Portuguese and starting Japanese-language classes at elementary and junior high schools. The futsal exchange event organized by the Gunma prefectural police is another such effort.
In Hamamatsu, there were 24,214 non-Japanese residents as of Nov. 1, accounting for 3 percent of the city's population. At a public housing complex where many Japanese-Brazilians live, the city hires interpreters and encourages foreign residents to participate in the complex's residents meetings and local festivals.
"We did a barbecue at the summer festival, and Brazilians were the first to come and help us," one Japanese resident said, apparently feeling the good effect of the city's effort.
Language lessons
"Kono ki wa 'nagai' desuka? [Is this tree 'long'?]," asked a Philippine woman.
"Kore wa 'takai' ne. [This is 'tall']," replied a female Japanese volunteer teacher, kindly correcting the woman's usage of adjectives while pointing at a picture of a tree.
The dialogue was heard at a meeting room of the Iwata housing complex in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture.
Non-Japanese residents, many of them Japanese-Brazilians, started settling down in the city in the 1990s. As of Nov. 1, the foreign residents' population was 17,122, accounting for about 4.5 percent of the city's population.
A local nonprofit organization began a Japanese-language class about nine years ago at the Iwata housing complex, which is managed by the prefecture, where foreigners are the lease signers at about 280 households, accounting for about half of all the households.
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