Community Interpretation Research Seminar Students Create Housing Handbook for Foreigners Living in Fuchu City

January 13, 2021

Every year, as part of their internship program, the students of the Community Interpretation Research Seminar (School of Language and Culture Studies) create a handbook on various subjects for foreigners living in Fuchu, Japan. These handbooks have been created in collaboration with Fuchu City and the Fuchu International Exchange Salon, and have covered topics such as "disaster prevention," "child-rearing," "garbage disposal," "high school entrance," and "public facilities."

This year, the students created a "Housing Handbook for Foreign Residents of Fuchu," a handy guide for foreigners looking for housing in Fuchu City. On Friday, January 8, 2021, a debriefing session was held to commemorate the completion of the handbook. This year's session was held online (ZOOM).

After a presentation on the contents of the handbook and the process of its creation, students and volunteers from the Fuchu International Exchange Salon actively exchanged opinions in breakout rooms. This year's “Handbook for Foreigners Living in Japan” will be distributed as a booklet in the near future, and will also be available online.

Comments from the students who participated in the project can be read below.

• Haruka Sano (School of Language and Culture Studies, English major, third year)
  This year, due to the effects of COVID-19, we had to create the handbook entirely online, which presented us with many unprecedented challenges in terms of communication and workflow. I am very happy that we were able to do our best under such circumstances and that we could commemorate the completion of the project. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Fuchu City Hall and the Fuchu International Exchange Salon for their generous cooperation. I also hope that this handbook will be used by many foreign residents.

• Kensuke Higashi (School of Language and Culture Studies, Chinese major, third year)
  This year's topic, "How foreign residents can rent and live in rental housing in Japan," was more difficult than previous years, and so we struggled with the content and expressions. However, after repeated deliberations and improvements through feedback from Fuchu City Hall and the Fuchu International Exchange Salon, we were very pleased to receive many compliments after the presentation, saying that it was very easy to understand. I learned to think from the perspective of foreigners living in Japan, and I believe that I will be able to use this experience in the future. Thank you very much.

• Yuka Matsuda (School of Language and Culture Studies, Polish major, third year)
  This year's topic, "Rental Housing," was more difficult than past years, as even Japanese people sometimes have trouble finding a place to live. For this reason, we repeatedly discussed the expressions, amount of information, and illustrations in the handbook not only among the seminar students, but also with people from Fuchu City Hall and the International Exchange Salon, in order to determine who the target audience for "easy Japanese" is, and what kind of convenience the users are looking for. We hope that this handbook, completed with the cooperation of many people, will be useful for foreigners residing in Fuchu City.