Support for Multicultural Conviviality in Local Governments
The policies for foreign residents in Japan have been developed mainly by local governments. In this page, we will focus on the “Multicultural Conviviality Promotion Plan” as a policy for foreign residents by local governments.
In March 2006, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) took the occasion that the number of foreign residents in Japan exceeded 2 million, it notified all local governments to consider their policies for accepting foreign residents. In response, all prefectures and municipalities in Japan were required to formulate a regional version of the plan, using the “Regional Plans for the Promotion of Multicultural Conviviality” compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as a model. The contents of the plan include the development of a system for accepting foreign residents in each municipality and the strengthening of cooperation with outside organizations such as NPOs and international exchange associations. On top of that, (1) supporting communication between Japanese and foreign residents, (2) supporting the daily lives of foreign residents, and (3) creating a multicultural community are considered priority goals (Takasaka 2019). In some cases, Miyagi and Shizuoka prefectures have enacted multicultural conviviality promotion plans as ordinances rather than creating such plans.
As of April 1, 2022, the number of local governments that have independently formulated guidelines or plans for multicultural conviviality is 19 prefectures (about 40% of the total) and 125 municipalities and each special ward (about 7% of the total). Looking at the breakdown, while 30-40% of government-designated cities and special wards have formulated these guidelines and plans, only about 10% of municipalities (excluding government-designated cities) have done so. Instead, there are many municipalities that include multicultural conviviality policies in their internationalization policies or comprehensive plans, rather than as a stand-alone measure. 51% of all municipalities (including prefectures and municipalities) have formulated multicultural conviviality policies in one of the above forms.
In this report, municipalities that have formulated multicultural conviviality promotion plans as of April 1, 2022 are mapped, one for municipalities including government-designated cities and special wards corresponding to the 23 wards of Tokyo, and the other for prefectures.
Shiho Kato (former undergraduate student at Yokohama City University) has contributed to the explanation of multicultural conviviality and the organization of the data on this page. We would like to express our gratitude to her.
References
Takasaka, Masako 2019. “On Policies for Foreign Residents Toward Sustainable Local Development: Social Integration Required on the Occasion of the Establishment of the New Resident Status “Specified Technical Skills. “JRI Review 6(67): 28-54.