A teacher congratulates a Philippine student for acing a Japanese-language test at a local community hall. Her instructor, Kanae Sato, is from Taiwan, and like most of the residents of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, both saw their homes destroyed by tsunami two years ago.

"Studying Japanese is becoming fun," the student, 29, who asked not to be named, said while taking a lunch break with a Chinese classmate. Expressing determination to continue living in the disaster-struck city, she added, "My three children speak Japanese, so I need to work on it as well."

For Yoshinobu Chiba, whose nonprofit group Gaikokujin Hisaisha Shien Center (Center for Aiding Foreign Nationals Affected by Disaster) organized the course, the classes are about more than simply teaching Japanese. They're about strengthening the foreign community as a whole.