What does Kobayashi city do to promote internationalization?
Kobayashi strives to be a regional that embraces the idea of an international society and is agreeable to live in for everyone. To achieve this, next to furthering intercultural understanding, the city is promoting activities intended to deepen respect towards people from various cultural backgrounds and the realization of a multicultural society.
1. Fostering a sense for a wider world among citizens
(1) Nurturing capable people
Cultivating a sense for internationalization among citizens and promoting international unterstanding
Distributing information relating to internationalization via social media
Information is being provided through the Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) and the Internationalization Coordinator
Every month, the CIR uploads an article via Kobayashi City's official Facebook page.
Older articles on the CIR's life and impressions of Kobayashi can be found here 国際交流員（CIR）の「国際交流員のコラム」。
Other information regarding Kobayashi's internationalization activities, photos taken in and around the city, can be found here「小林市多文化共生推進 Kobayashi City Cross-Cultural Unit」.
Events and lectures to further international understanding
International exchange
Kobayashi's CIR talks about her home country Germany, its culture, music, and culinary culture. Also, the participants become acquainted with basic German, suitable for beginners.
Lecture on Germany (2019)
Cooking class (2020)
German cooking class at "Shiawase Gakuen" (2023)
"Chat Salon" (2017 - 2019)
With a focus on communication in English, the "Chat Salon" provided a space for foreign residents and Japanese citizens to meet and to deepen their understanding of foreign cultures by being exposed to them.
"Chat Salon" (2018)
Raising a leader with a profound sense for the wider world
The city investigates ways to support the nurture of people engaged in promoting internationalization and multiculturalism in their region.
Public lectures
Events where Japanese and foreign residents can exchange are being held in the region.
Public lecture (2019)
Enriching international education for the young generation
The city promotes education for international understanding with a focus on English language and culture by utilizing ALTs (Assistent Language Teacher) and CIRs (Coordinator for Internation Relations) respectively.
International exchange projects
Kindergarten and school visits (2020)
Christmas event (2019)
Christmas event (2021)
The city promotes education enabling children to understand regional customs and culture and express what they have learned.
World Camp in Kobayashi
Set on the Hinamori campsite, the World Camp provides Junior high school students from Kobayashi with an opportunity to exchange with international students from Miyazaki University and improve their English as well as their sense for a wider world.
World Camp in Kobayashi (2019)
(2) Promoting international exchange
Promoting exchange with people from other countries
Promoting exchange on topics such as the history, culture and sports of various foreign countries
German host town exchange project
Kobayashi City became host town to Germany for the Olympics/Paralympics that took place in Tokyo 2021.
In this context, multiple events to deepen our citizen's knowledge about German culture were held. Among these were events where people could learn about German traditions and life in Germany. A painting class, where children could paint a picture that would later be entered in the yearly painting competition conducted by the Germany Embassy was also held.
Host town event at the Miyazaki Aeon Mall (2018)
Exchange with a German youth sports team (2018)
Cheering for the German team at the World Women's handball event (2020)
Painting competition under the auspieces of the German Embassy (2018)
Promoting internationalization on a regional level
We strive to increase opportunities to engage in international exchange by encouraging foreign citizens to participate in international exchange events and regional activities.
2. Supporting citizens with various cultural backgrounds
(1) Supporting foreign residents in their daily lives
Providing living information
The city strives to provide foreign residents with easy-to-understand living information.
Information distribution / provision
Staff at the Regional Revitalization Division provides living consultation, information on disaster prevention and medical facilities in English. This information is also made availabe on the city's homepage.
The CIR in cooperation with the Internationalization Coordinator translate relevant information into "Plain Japanese" and "English".
Multicultural Coexistence Passport
To make relevant information more accessible to foreign residents, the city has created this leaflet available in "Plain Japanese", "English" and "Vietnamese".
To the foreign residents interested in the "Multicultural Coexistence Passport", please come to the Regional Revitalization Division, or reach us under 0984-23-1148.
Supporting communication
The city aspires to raise a "Japanese Exchange Coach" who will work to support the mutual unterstanding between Japanese and foreign citizens and a smooth exchange between them.
Training course for supporters of regional Japanese education
In this course participants learn how to engage and communicate with foreign residents. Through these leactures, taught by professionals from the field of Japanese education or multicultural coexistence, participants learn methods of how to bring information across, using simple Japanese.
Regional Japanese education supporter classes (2021-2022)
To support foreign residents in their daily lives, next to promoting the acquisition of language skills, we encourage people to deepen their understanding of Japanese culture and customs as an integral part of the process.
Regional Japanese education: Japanese language class KIZUNA (2021~)
In this Japanese class participants are encouranged to converse in Japanese on a variety of topics relating to living information and Japanese culture, carefully selected by professional Japanese language teachers. The focus is placed on enriching the participant's ability to communicate and to deepen the cultural exchange experience.
Topic "My City" (2021)
Topic "Cultural experience - Wearing a Yukata" (2022)
Topic "Going shopping" (2023)
Japanese class "Nihongo Salon" (2016 - 2018)
The Japanese class "Nihongo Salon" was intended as a place where foreign residents and Japanese citizens could converse on different topics such as living information and learn about cultural differences along the way.
Japanese class "Nihongo Salon" (2019)
The city works to further the understanding of foreign culture and religion among the citizens of Kobayashi.
Cultural exchange
To deepen mutual understanding between citizens speaking different languages and with varied cultural backgrounds, the city holds events where partipants can learn about cultures different from their own.
Through such events the city hopes to create awareness towards internationalization as a topic, as well as to deepen mutual understanding among foreign and Japanese citizens.
Getting to know Brazil through Judo and food culture (2019)
What's it like to be a muslin and live in Japan? (2018)
Improving support for non-Japanese children
Because of the importance of Japanese language proficiency as a primary pillar of daily life, the city provides Japanese language assistance where necessary.
Japanese Language Support Coach
Through a coach the city provides Japanese language assistance to children in need of support.
The coach will support the student during their daily routine at school as well as help improve their Japanese language ability.
Supporting foreign citizens in providing a help desk
To improve the ability to address foreign citizen's requests, the city employs interpretation devices and response manuals at help desks.
Responding to requests at the help desk (point-it illustrations)
To support foreign residents in communicating with city hall staff, the general information desk and the Resident Affairs Division have been equipped with illustrated point-it sheets, containing easy words and phrases in English.
Supporting foreign residents in finding stable employment
The city evalutes actual working conditions for foreigners while cooperating with the companies and related organizations they are employed at.
(2) Furthering foreign resident's participation in regional community planning
Furthering understanding among the citizens
By offering workshops on multiculturalism etc., the city is creating an environment where Japanese and foreign citizens can come together.
Furthering foreign resident's participation in regional community planning.
Next to providing easy-to-understand regional information for foreigners, the city seeks to encourage the citizens of Kobayashi to actively participate in city development activities by creating opportunities.
Regional evacuation drill
Foreign residents of Kobayashi city participated in an evacuation drill during which they learned about specific goods used during disasters and about the different roles and rules in place at a shelter.
Impression of the regional evacuation drill (2019)
3. Establishing a system of promoting internatinalization
(1) Creating a favourable environment to promote internationalization
Creating an environment in which internationalization is dealt with
The city provides multilingual directions and guidance material in public facilies.
Establishment of a network
Next to creating spaces where foreigners and locals can come together, the city is working on a system that will ensure the safety of foreigners during emergencies or disasters.
Support in times of disasters or emergencies
The city is providing multilingual information on disaster prevention and evacuation and is working on a system that will ensure the safety of foreigners during emergencies or disasters.
Kobayashi City's Comprehensive Disaster Guide
The disaster prevention guide book is available in
Disaster prevention information
Information on disaster prevention is issued via the city's hompage.
Creating an environment that addresses foreign tourist's needs
- To promote the development of a regional tourism that takes the needs of foreign tourists into account, the city is working towards increasing multilingual writing on signboards and the city's homepage as well as realizing workshops on inbound tourism at enterprises.
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更新日：2024年01月26日