AROUND JAPAN: IWATA, Shizuoka Prefecture: City teaches foreigners 'garbage 101'

New foreign residents in Iwata starting in April will get some help cleaning up their act by attending a required course on the disposal of household garbage.

The new orientation session, held when foreign residents go to city hall to apply for registration, will detail various rules and paperwork they will encounter in their daily lives.

Eventually, the foreigners will be taught about disaster management, taxes and education for their children, but for now, the important part is the separation of garbage.

The idea to hold the information sessions came from city residents who share their neighborhoods with foreigners.

"We all want to create a safe and comfortable community. We hope to further deepen our mutual understanding and to further expand this new system," Tomoji Sugita, 67, who heads the Iwata federation of neighborhood associations, said.

As of Dec 31, 2007, about 5 percent of Iwata's residents were foreigners.

Of the 9,789 foreign residents, 7,499 were Brazilian.

It is not unusual to see an official from a temporary staffing agency leading a group of Brazilian workers to city hall and helping them with their alien registration procedures.

The city opened a special information section for foreigners on the first floor of city hall in April 2006. Iwata city government workers and a Portuguese interpreter are on hand at all times.

Once a week, there is someone to help who can speak English or Tagalog. Pamphlets and brochures covering aspects of daily life in Iwata are available to ease the transition for foreign residents.

Despite all these efforts, there are still complaints from Japanese residents about noisy foreigners who do not know how to separate their garbage.

Neighborhood associations said things to the city such as "the city should teach (rules and manners) properly when (foreigners) first arrive."

Another complaint was "it is easy to say the neighborhood association should take care of them, but we have no idea of who lives where. There are limits as to what can be done."

However, there have been more friendly requests as well. Some wanted the city to "extend the message" and let the foreign community realize there are active neighborhood associations out there that can serve as the pillar of cooperation when a natural disaster strikes.

"We hope to promote the information session in a way that is not mandatory, just like the safe driving lectures that are offered when drivers renew their driving licenses," said a city official in charge of promoting a convivial society.

Initially, a city official will explain garbage disposal rules. There will be a Portuguese interpreter and the session will take about 30 minutes.

There are plans to eventually add more information regarding taxes, the education system, neighborhood associations and what to do during disasters.

The city will be asking temp staff agencies and companies that take in the foreign workers to cooperate with the new requirements.

The city held a meeting on Jan. 17 for companies to exchange opinions on multi-cultural coexistence.

Temp staff agency officials were fine with using the lunch breaks to have the foreigners sit through the presentations.

One said: "We use the lunch breaks to escort foreigners to city hall for registration. We should be able to cooperate, if it only takes 30 minutes."

Another said: "Unless we take the time in the beginning we end up seeing a lot of problems in the long run. Schedule-wise, it is a tight squeeze, but we want to cooperate."

The city aims to make new residents understand that living in the community means sharing responsibilities such as complying with neighborhood rules and regulations, while clearly detailing the rights residents are entitled to.(IHT/Asahi: March 4,2008)