Globalization has brought a multicultural environment into Japanese society, especially after the Immigration Control Act's revision in 1990. Certainly, the increased foreign worker population has become a major issue. Tabunka kyousei (multicultural coexistence) is the term used to denote the integration of foreign residents into Japanese local areas.
This study aims to examine the concept of multicultural coexistence and Japanese residents' attitudes toward acceptance of foreign residents, based on interviews in an area with a high concentration of Japanese-Brazilians.
Previous studies have demonstrated that contact with foreign residents promotes positive attitudes toward Brazilians and Peruvians in neighborhoods. Such contact with foreign residents in daily life helps establish "visible relationships" between Japanese and non-Japanese residents, thus assisting residents accept Brazilians and Peruvians as community members.
However, this study finds that even if people have close personal contacts with non-Japanese residents and positive attitudes toward them, they also have negative attitudes in some cases of multicultural community life ; for example, in their children's school life. This suggests that people might have double standards of consciousness in everyday multicultural coexistence.

論文