With globalization, multiculturalization of Japanese society is progressing.In various areas and at schools as well as at corporations, various problems have begun to arise.In order to solve these problems, it is important to construct networks with various organizations and groups, and with people in various fields.

At the Center, we intend to carry forward activities through partnerships and cooperation with the government, corporations, the Board of Education, NPOs, civic volunteer groups and elementary, junior as well as senior high schools while undertaking a central role in these networks.Moreover, through taking advantage of the University's characteristic of having specialists knowledgeable in 26 languages and cultures, we aspire to perform operations which are concrete and broad-ranged in nature, in the aim of contributing to Japanese society which is becoming more and more multicultural.

Major Activities

1. Coordinator development program for multicultural societies

As human resources to solve problems of multilingual and multicultural societies, the need the development of coordinators has come to be heard in business and educational communities as well as in the government.

Therefore, in 2007, the Center applied to the "Program for the Promotion of Education to Meet the Needs for Re-training of Workers” organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology with the “Coordinator Development Program as a New Type of Occupation Demanded by Multicultural Societies” and was accepted. The development program for “multicultural society coordinators” has been in operation since 2007.

Program Summary

Establishment of 3 Specialized Courses

1. Policy Course: Mid-level staff of international exchange organizations, government and corporations who are responsible for coordinating measures and policies of accepting foreign people and dealing with multicultural factors
2. School Education Course: Teaching staff and the Board of Education members who are responsible for coordinating support activities for foreign students
3. Civic Activity Course: Leading staff of organizations and groups which perform Japanese support activities, consultations and international exchange activities in their region.

* All of the 3 courses are comprised of 3 main components: “Compulsory Subjects”, “Subjects by Specialty” and “Individual Practical Research”.

Partnership with Practical Research activities performed at the Center

• Making announcements at the "National Forum on Practical Research Partnership” and elsewhere.
• Submission of papers to the research bulletin “Multilingualization and Multiculturalization – Practice and Research”

2. Participation of teaching staff and graduate students as interpreter volunteers in consultation activities for foreigners held by Tokyo Supporting Network for Foreign Residents

Tokyo Supporting Network for Foreign Residents is a network organization comprised of 42 groups including international exchange organizations, municipalities, specialized organizations and NPOs of the Tokyo area.In cooperation, they have been implementing “Relay Professional Consultation” which visits public facilities of the Tokyo area in rotation and “Training Sessions for Language Volunteers and Counselors”.The Center joined the network in April 2006.

3. Elaboration of educational materials for foreign children – downloadable educational materials available for free use

In order to make as much contribution as possible to the education of children with foreign connections, the Center promotes its project on the elaboration of educational materials.First of all, with the cooperation of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., we have worked on developing educational materials for Brazilian children living in Japan and completed creating some materials for arithmetic (addition and subtraction) and kanji.The educational materials are released on the internet so that anyone can use them at their own discretion, free of charge.

Concurrently with the project on the elaboration of educational materials, we are also performing activities to develop a suitable environment for effective utilization of the materials through partnerships with municipalities, the Board of Education and schools in 3 main target regions of Ota City and Oizumi Town in Gunma Prefecture, Ueda City in Nagano Prefecture and Hamamatsu City in Shizuoka Prefecture as well. Various training sessions and forums are implemented for this.

Moreover, by taking advantage of the University’s resources for language education, we are working on the elaboration of educational materials for Filipino children in addition to those for Brazilian children.