COVER STORY: Living in Japan—Home from Home

Caption: Foreign residents of Ota in Gunma Prefecture attend a disaster prevention seminar organized by the volunteer group Ayumi-no-kai.
Credit: TADASHI AIZAWA

Learning the Lay of the Land

Many foreign residents work in the flourishing auto­ motive and electronics manufacturing industries in the city of Ota and its environs in Gunma Prefecture. Ota, which has a population of 220,000, is home to approximately 7,700 foreign residents, while there are about 6,000 foreign residents living in neighboring Oizumi­machi, population 50,000. They come from as many as sixty countries, including Brazil, the Philippines and China.

On Sunday June 6, 2010, about sixty people of many different nationalities and ages gathered at a hands­on disaster experience training session for foreigners residing locally. The session was organized by the volunteer group Ayumi­no­kai with the purpose of reducing the worries that foreigners can feel because of the differences in language and customs. Yoshiko Yoshihara, a representative of Ayumi­no­kai, comments, “Seeing how flustered Japanese people get when a disaster occurs, I think it must be even worse for foreigners who do not understand the language, and that is why we have planned this training session. Of course, we also have to cooperate with the foreign residents here, if a disaster occurs.”

During the session, the participants verified the locations of emergency evacuation areas on a Disaster Prevention Map and sampled foods that can be preserved for a long time.

On the day of the training session, the fire department unexpectedly had a report of a real fire, and the participants were able to watch the team mobilize the fire engines. One of the participants, a Brazilian man in his thirties who works in the area, shared his impressions, saying, “I was impressed by how quickly the team mobilized. If this is the kind of response we can expect, I feel safe living in Ota City.” The officer in charge of Ota City Hall commented, “Other initiatives by residents for supporting foreign residents in their daily life that have taken hold include volunteer interpreter services, and teaching about Japanese culture and lifestyle.”

To support resident foreigners in their daily lives, Ota City also organizes Japanese language classes and has set up an advisory service for issues related to daily life in English, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese.