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Press Briefing Information

Co-existence with Foreign Residents --the Case of Hamamatsu

Mr. Yasuyuki Kitawaki
(Mayor of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture)


Date: June 22,2006
Time: 15:00 - 16:30
Place: Foreign Press Center (6th Floor, Nippon Press Center Building)

Of its 810,000 population, about 4% are foreign residents in the city of Hamamatsu; it also embraces the largest number of Brazilians in Japan. Because there are world-renowned companies producing motorcycles and musical instruments, the city provides a broad industrial base and hence more employment opportunities. According to a survey conducted by the city in 2003, the percentage of foreigners who have been residing in the city for more than ten years is now 41%. Two years ago, Professor Kazuaki Tezuka of Chiba University gave a press briefing at FPC on the issue of foreign labor in Japan and presented recommendations to the government (see http://fpcj.jp/e/mres/briefingreport/bfr_11.html). Mayor Kitawaki will talk from the standpoint of an autonomous body on how the city is coping or seeking to co-exist with long-term foreign residents. The mayor has been pointing out that the case of Hamamatsu, where a large number of the so-called “new comers” (second and third-generation Japanese Latin Americans) are beginning to settle down, will be a widespread phenomenon in this country in the very near future. (Website of Hamamatsu city http://www.city.hamamatsu.shizuoka.jp/)

Language: Japanese (with English interpretation)