設立の経緯（英語）

Institutional Prospectus Kawasaki History Museum for Multicultural Unity in Diversity

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Kawasaki City. Its growth into an industrial and commercial hub was supported by long-time local residents.  It was also shaped by migrants from across Japan—including Okinawa, Kyushu, and Hokkaido—as well as from overseas. As of the end of December 2023, Kawasaki is home to 50,794 foreign residents from 146 countries. The number of foreign families who have lived in Japan for generations, as well as Japanese citizens with foreign roots, continues to grow.

We believe it is essential to record how the multicultural foundations of this city were built, how community members and city policies have responded to change, and to pass this history on to future generations —especially to the children. If Kawasaki is to be “a city everyone can call home,” we must renew our commitment to creating a community free from discrimination.

One hundred years after the Great Kanto Earthquake, have the prejudices that ordinary Japanese people once held against Koreans and Chinese —which fueled the unjust attacks—truly been overcome? Sadly, discrimination has not disappeared. Hate speech still runs rampant on the streets and online. How then can we build a city that genuinely respects human rights and dignity, one that residents can be proud to call home?

Kawasaki has a long history of grassroots action grounded in the spirit of “living together.” It began with Japanese and Korean residents working together on the Hitachi Employment Discrimination Trial to address barriers to career advancement for Koreans living in Japan. This was followed by campaigns to abolish nationality clauses that excluded foreign residents from public housing and child welfare allowances, campaigns by Korean residents to refuse to give fingerprint for their Alien Registration cards, and calls for the establishment of basic education policies for resident foreigners.

Kawasaki also pioneered groundbreaking initiatives at the municipal level: the creation of Japan’s first Representative Assembly for Foreign Residents to give non-citizen residents a voice in local governance, and the removal of the Japanese nationality requirements for hiring regular municipal employees in a major city, also a first.

More recently, Kawasaki made national headlines by halting some of the rampant hate demonstrations through the

united efforts of its residents. The rise of anti-hate movements even led the National Diet to enact the bipartisan Hate Speech Elimination Act. Kawasaki then became the first city in Japan to pass “the Kawasaki City Ordinance on the Creation of a Discrimination-Free, Human-Rights Respecting City,” which includes penalty provisions.

In March 2005, Kawasaki adopted its “Guideline for Promoting a Multicultural, Harmonious Society in Kawasaki.” To truly live “together,” adults must work across ideological and positional differences to protect children’s identities and futures. Kawasaki is home to two Korean schools that have provided ethnic education since the years immediately following World War II, enabling children of Korean descent to grow up with pride. For children from newcomer families, we must also address urgent challenges such as unstable residency status, limited support for educational advancement, and the scarcity of spaces for education in their native language.

In April 2023, we began working to establish a History Museum for Multicultural Solidarity in Kawasaki. We envision a place that:

preserves and shares the history of struggles for multicultural understanding, cooperation and human rights,

provides opportunities for visitors to engage with documents and testimonies on-site,

and fosters communication and encounters among diverse people.

We imagine permanent exhibitions where local children can explore a timeline of modern regional history, see displays of everyday cultural artifacts, and reflect on the lives of their parents, grandparents, and first-generation immigrants within the broader context of history. Stories absent from textbooks will come into focus, helping children develop a deeper sense of identity.

Such a museum can be a place to envision a shared future beyond differences and challenges, a place of learning, solidarity, and hope.

Together with people from across Kawasaki and beyond, we want to bring this museum to life. We ask for your understanding and support. We invite you to consider becoming a regular, supporting, or sustaining member—and join us in shaping the next chapter of Kawasaki’s history.

— Founding Members