The picture of Okubo through the eyes of those that were on a school trip

Okubo has been featured by NHK many times as the place for understanding multiculturalism. As a matter of fact, many students have visited Okubo on school trips in order to gain an understanding of foreign cultures and the coexistence of such. What’s at the top of their concerns?

◆131 students were divided into 28 teams (4~5 people per team) and they visited 51 companies, offices, stores, restaurants, NPO groups and so on that are run by Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Burmese, and Tunisian in the district (Each team visited 2 places). The experience brought the knowledge regarding internationalization that they learned when they were in first and second year all together.

The students arrived at Shokuan-dori on the bus at 11am. They headed towards Lutheran Church under the guidance of Mr. Yamamoto (the representative of Kyojyukon). In the bethel, Mr. Yamamoto handed out the pamphlets about Okubo as well as the maps of the places to be visited and conducted an orientation. There were also greetings from Mr. Hisok Kim, the president of Kanjinkai. After that, the students headed towards their destinations in the rain.

The students experienced through their five senses on the streets where Asian languages can be heard and signs written in Korean can be seen and through the interviews at their destinations. According to their reports, they were most surprised by the existence of a town like Okubo in Japan where people from various countries live in.

SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL 2007!!　 WE　HAVE 10 PAIR　OF　TICKETS　FOR　GIVEAWAY.

Win a pair of free tickets for the SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL 2007!!
We have 10 pairs of tickets for giveaway.
*Tickets are valid for all screening other than premiere and closing screenings. 1 screening per single ticket.
*All seats are unreserved. First-come first-served seating.
*Admission may be restricted after the film start, or if the seats are all sold out.
*Pre-School children are not allowed in the hall.

ALSA is a non-political student association consisting of law school students from 9 Asian countries/districts. It engages in international academic and cultural exchanges.

◆As the result of the Korean boom that happened a few years ago, people have familiarized themselves with Korea. Korean lessons and study abroad programs in Korea have also become very popular. At the same time, there is a bitter history where conflicts and invasions took place. Disputes over the Yasukuni Shrine issue and the Takeshima Island still remain due to different perspectives on history.


To what extent can young people who will be the leaders of tomorrow share their understanding regarding Japan and Korea? They can learn about each other through references and the internet, but they can only share a thorough mutual understanding through direct conversations. “Study Trip from Korea to Japan 2007” is a project created with the intention to facilitate academic and cultural exchanges between Japanese and Korean law school students. It will be held from August 15th (Wed) to August 23rd (Thurs). Under the theme “Make some concession now ~ A step towards cooperativeness and friendship”, participants will discuss various issues related to Japan and Korea. In addition, many activities will be conducted to facilitate a mutual understanding. The goal is to build a consolidate relationship that will contribute to the building of a brighter society. On August 19th, the academic meeting will be open to the public where presentations of the discussion results, speech from university professors, and discussions among visitors will be held. We can sense what the future leaders of Japan and Korea are thinking are on that day.

The project will be hosted by ALSA Japan. ALSA Japan is a student organization with the aim to promote integrated growth and the understanding of diversity. In addition to daily academic activities, ALSA has launched a few outstanding projects to promote international exchanges.

For more detail on “Study Trip from Korea to Japan 2007”, visit the following website.
http://alsa-jp.net/st2007/

in the age of multicultural coexistence
- Addressing the problem in the internationalizing Japanese society-

Report on the situation in the Ookubo neighborhood, Shinjuku.

Recently one real estate agency made a major improvement on its’ advertisement posters: where it used to be written “No foreigners allowed” you can now read “Rental inquiries from foreign residents can be considered”.

This improvement in rental regulations it’s not restricted to one particular type of housing, but applies to almost all the different types of housing provided by this real estate agency. Its’ name is “Ethnic town” and it is located in Ookubo, Shinjuku (Ookubo 1-2 chome, Hyakunincho 1-2 chome, Kitashinjuku 1-3 chome).

About 10 years ago, this “No foreigner allowed”　policy was common for most Japanese real estate agencies. Let’s see what kind of social context could allow this improvement to happen.

The main factor of this evolution is probably the important increase of the number of foreign residents in the Shinjuku area. Presently ( 2004, Jan.), 29,143　foreigners live in Shinjuku, which represents 10% of the local population, while they were only 14,301 in 1988 during the economic bubble period. And in addition to this doubling of the foreign population (+ 14,842 ), the number of Japanese people living in Shinjuku decreased by 40,514. The structure of the population in the Ookubo neighborhood shows even more diversity, with more than 20% of its inhabitants being foreigners. In Ookubo, the rental demand by foreigners is higher than the demand by Japanese people, and foreigners usually rent apartments for a shorter time that Japanese people. “80% of my clients are foreigners” - says one of the managers of this real estate agency in Ookubo.

Another factor that allowed the improvement of the housing situation for foreigners was the disruption of the balance between supply and demand in the rental market after the economic bubble’s collapse in Japan. The excess of supply over demand lead to changing and improving the rental regulations for foreign residents and made foreigners important clients of Japanese rental businesses. Moreover, the upgrade of old wooden houses into modern apartments and the rejuvenation of the owners of real estate agencies (their change from owners/founders of the business to managers) contributed to the improvement of the rental regulations for foreigners and allowed the rental business in Japan to adapt to this era of multicultural coexistence.

By loosening the regulations concerning foreigners and interacting with them as potential clients, Japanese real estate agencies could realize the groundlessness of their concerns towards foreigners and thus became more flexible and open-minded, which helped to solve a lot of problems. Now most of the real estate agencies in Shinjuku think of changes in thesocial and business environments as a good business opportunity and some of these agencies even started to recruit foreign staff.

The demographic aging of the Japanese society raises the problem of securing new sources of manpower for the future. The boosting of employment opportunities for foreigners is considered to be one of the possible solutions for this problem. In this context, the increase of the foreign population and the growth of the foreign neighborhoods appear to be natural processes.
The Ookubo area, used as an example in this article, is located next to Kabukicho, one of the biggest shopping and entertainment areas in Japan, which has an increasing need of foreign manpower. This makes Ookubo a convenient place to live and one can assume it is the main reason of the increase of its foreign population.

Hagino Masao, Ichii Co, President, Japan Rental Management Association, Chairman of International Exchange Committee