A council of 28 municipalities with large numbers of Japanese-Brazilian and other foreign residents asked the education ministry Tuesday to create a government agency charged with integrating policies on such residents.
Measures should be worked out to help foreign residents who have lost jobs, including enhancing education for their children by providing financial aid to the public schools they attend, according to the requests. An increasing number of foreigners are choosing to stay in Japan after losing jobs amid the recession.
Representing the council, Masayoshi Shimizu, mayor of Ota, Gunma Prefecture, and Yasutomo Suzuki, mayor of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, presented a set of requests in writing in a meeting with Masaharu Nakagawa, senior vice education minister.
"The Democratic Party of Japan compiled measures for foreign residents when it was an opposition party," said Nakagawa, who is also a Lower House member of the DPJ, after receiving the requests. "We at the education ministry would like to consider primarily education issues for children."
The council was founded by the 28 municipalities in seven prefectures in 2001 to jointly solve problems related to foreign residents. The seven prefectures are Gunma, Nagano, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Mie and Shiga.