Cover Story: Culture shock

Tokyo's Minato Ward, home to nearly 22,000 foreign residents and the most embassies in Japan, is making a move that seems belated for such a cosmopolitan city: It is setting up its first administrative office to deal with the needs of foreign residents.

It's not that the ward has failed to help foreign residents live comfortably; that work has been outsourced to an auxiliary group.

Instead, Minato Ward and many other municipalities are being forced to review their international affairs offices or auxiliary organizations set up during the economic boom years to help foreign residents.

The governments have come under financial strain and pressure to streamline operations. In addition, some governments say the idea of creating specialized departments for foreign residents and treating them differently from Japanese is outdated.

Minato Ward has the highest percentage--11.8 percent--of non-Japanese residents among Tokyo's 23 administrative wards.

As of Feb. 1, 21,915 foreign residents and 75 foreign embassies were based in Minato Ward. They are also a major source of tax revenue for the ward.

The Minato International Association has been handling most of the ward's international-related work, from providing translations of official city bulletins, to organizing Japanese language classes and enhancing international awareness among Japanese residents.

The association operates on subsidies from the ward as well as private and corporate donations.
But last year, the ward said it would stop providing subsidies to the association after fiscal 2008 as a cost-cutting measure.

The ward said membership at the association, one of eight external groups proposed for consolidation, had declined, making it more dependent on subsidies.

The association's budget was 42 million yen in fiscal 2007.

The ward initially considered divvying up the association's work among existing sections. However, staff and some assembly members warned that work sharing would be impossible.

Yoko Watanabe, an official with Minato Ward's industry and regional promotion department, expressed concerns that the absence of a specialized entity could "send the wrong message that this ward is not committed to international affairs."

Her department will have jurisdiction over the new office.

Watanabe noted that foreign residents "contribute roughly 20 percent of (the ward's) tax income," another reason to make the ward more accommodating to the international community.

The ward says it hopes the new office will "enhance the ward's cosmopolitan image and better serve the needs of non-Japanese residents." The new office will comprise four staff, including counselors, and be headed by a section chief-level official appointed from the public to serve a three- to five-year term.

One of the first measures of the office will be a survey to determine the needs of non-Japanese residents, Watanabe said.

Currently, 15 of the 23 administrative wards in Tokyo have posts or offices that specialize in international or multicultural affairs.

Other wards have incorporated international-related tasks, such as coordinating international exchanges and administrative services for foreign residents, into existing departments.

Toshima Ward, whose 15,935 foreign residents account for about 6 percent of the population, eliminated its culture and international affairs section about eight years ago. Toshima ranks fifth among the 23 wards in terms of the ratio of foreign residents.

The ward now relegates tasks, from informing residents about garbage collection to cultural exchanges with foreign cities, to relevant departments.

To assist the work, the ward has designated 10 ward officials with a command of English, Chinese and other languages to serve as "supporters," along with 29 volunteers.

Masato Nogami, an official at the ward's culture and tourism office, which is in charge of sister-city exchanges, acknowledged that the move was part of a larger drive to streamline the bureaucracy.

But "we would also like to consider non-Japanese not as a particular group requiring special treatment but rather as ordinary citizens," he said.

Many groups commissioned by municipalities to handle such affairs are also biting the bullet.
"We are faced with a strong head wind with cutbacks in financial and human resources," said Mariko Oku, of the Association for Nakano International Communications in Nakano Ward, during a recent panel discussion in Tokyo on the future of international organizations.

The association currently operates on subsidies of about 30 million yen a year, less than half the 70 million yen when it started operations in 1989, Oku said.

Chieko Aogaki, a senior official at the metropolitan government's Tokyo International Communication Committee, said many municipalities "were working hard to provide services to foreign residents, while facing mounting challenges to curb costs and streamline."

"How each municipality engages in international affairs naturally differs with the circumstance facing that municipality," Aogaki said. "What really matters is what the municipality is capable of doing, rather than what kind of arrangement it sets up."(IHT/Asahi: February 29,2008)

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200802290074.html