New links added 5 Oct 2021:
The 2 Hamamatsu Intercultural City Vision A report that reviews Hamamatsu's policies as an intercultural city. Hamamatsu City, 2018.
City of Hamamatsu Intercultural Profile A report that looks at multicultural coexistence in Japan and the examines different aspects of multicultural coexistence in Hamamatsu including areas such as governance and democratic participation, education and training and language and multilingualism. 2017, Council of Europe.
Broadcasting in a Multicultural Society: A Case Study in Hamamatsu by YONEKURA Ritsu and TANI Masana. NHK Studies in Braodcasting, 2011.
Nonprofit brings together foreign, Japanese residents in Hamamatsu An article about Hamamatsu NPO Network Center, "which organizes activities to encourage foreign kids to go to school, and to foster better communication between Japanese and foreign students" and the situation in Hamamatsu. japan Times, 13 Mar 2010.
Foreign children slipping through the cracks of Japan's education system An NHK survey found that The study found that out of 120,000 foreign children between the ages of 6 and 14 living in Japan about 8,400 are believed to have not attended school. This article looks at the situation of some of these children who are attending a nursery school in Hamamatsu City even though they are 6 years old or over. NHK World. 17 Apr 2019.
Japan's trial run for migrant workers This article looks at whether migrant workers could help solve an imminent labour shortage caused by Japan's population crisis. It focuses particularly on Nikkei Brazilan immigrants, who were encouraged to emigrate to Japan from the 1990s, and on Hamamatsu city in Shizuoka that has a large Nikkei Brazilian population. BBC News, 21 November, 2007.
Hamamatsu City website in Japanese with foreign language information and translations. There is also English information about Hamamatsu and Canal Hamamatsu - information in English for foreign residents
Hamamatsu City Statistics Foreign resident population in Hamamatsu city by Hamamatsu Foundation for International Communications and Exchanges(HICE).
Hamamatsu Intercultural (Tabunka Kyousei) Center
Little Brazil: Hamamatsu and the Japan-Brazil Year of Exchange 2008 "Walk through Hamamatsu and you will quickly notice that it has a rather different flavour from most other Japanese cities...Venture into Hamamatsu’s nightclubs and you will find Brazilians, Westerners and Japanese rubbing shoulders to Brazilian beats." Newsletter, Hamamatsu City.
Education Support Information for Foreign Children by Hamamatsu NPO Network Center (N-Pocket) "We made this website for foreign children be able to receive appropriate education and live in harmony in Japan. On these pages, we provide information about the difference of education system between Japan and foreign countries, senior high schools and organization which works to support the immigrants." Includes information on Japanese language classes. In Japanese here.
In Traditionally Insular Japan, A Rare Experiment in Diversity "Hamamatsu, Japan -- Five years ago, in this coastal city southwest of Tokyo, Mari Matsumoto sank her life savings into building a school for the children and grandchildren of immigrants coming to Japan." An article about the Japanese-Brazilian and Japanese-Peruvian communities in Hamamatsu and the Mundo de Alegra (World of Happiness) school set up for Brazilian and Peruvian children in Hamamatsu.Washington Post, October 6, 2007.
Lonely Swallows Lonely Swallows is a documentary that follows the struggles of Japanese-Brazilian children living in Hamamatsu.
Nonprofit brings together foreign, Japanese residents in Hamamatsu Hamamatsu's foreign population of about 30,000 people largely like in separate areas from the Japanese population, making it hard for foreign children to integrate into society and contributing to the fact that half of foreing children don't go to high school. This article looks at this situation and at the work of Hamamatsu NPO Network Center to change the situation. Japan Times, Mar. 13, 2010
Hamamatsu Foreign Resident Study Support Center. Also here. "As a city with the most Brazilian residents in Japan, the Center strives to be a place that offers general educational support for foreign residents of all ages. Acting as a base, the Center dispatches Japanese language teachers to international schools in Hamamatsu, and with the cooperation of the foreign community, conducts a number of Japanese classes throughout the area". More information here including about Japanese classes for foreign residents and Portuguese language classes for Japanese school teachers.
TOMO2 Hamamatsu Foreign Children's Educational Support Organisation is an NPO which sends teachers of Japanese to schools in Hamamatsu to help foreign children.
Feminized Migration, Community Activism and Grassroots Transnationalization in Japan by Keiko Yamanaka In the absence of governmental policy to incorporate immigrants into the nation’s political and legal structure, Brazilian children growing up in Japan have encountered great difficulty in acquiring an adequate education. In response, a group of Brazilian mothers founded an organization, ALA Brasil, to help their children cope with study in a public school in Hamamatsu, Japan. 2003.
Helping Brazilian kids master local life Japanese-Brazilian Tetsuyoshi Kodama proudly serves as a bridge between the Japanese and Japanese-Brazilian communities in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. Japan Times, Aug. 23, 2011.
Multicultural Coexistence in Hamamatsu City: Challenges after 2008 Economic Crisis This report looks particularly at the effect of the economic crisis on working conditions for Japanese-Brazilaians in Hamamatsu and on education for Japanese-Brazilian children. It includes a summary in Japanese
A Japanese approach to municipal diversity management: The case of Hamamatsu City An overview of Hamamatsu's policies on multiculturalism and support for foreign residents by Yasuyuki Kitawaki, who was Mayor of Hamamatsu from 1999 to 2007.