As Japan welcomes more foreign workers under new visas introduced in April, a city near Tokyo with a large foreign population is taking steps to help the children of foreign nationals overcome language barriers at school.

Municipal officials in Kawasaki Ward, in the city of Kawasaki, teamed up with Seikyu-sha, a social welfare service provider, to jointly host a summer school this year for junior high school students who have come to Japan within the past three years.

As of late June, the ward was home to nearly 40 percent of the city's 44,000 foreign residents. At the summer school, retired teachers offered the children help with homework and writing essays in Japanese.