New community

By on June 30, 2008

Photo © Elena Derevstova

The foreign community in Japan takes on diverse forms: business, missionary, military, teaching, embassy and many others. When newcomers arrive in Japan, an organization that welcomes them into their new community is Welcome Furoshiki, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. 

 

The concept of creating a welcoming service in Japan stemmed from Charlotte Kennedy Takahashi, who noticed upon arriving to Japan in 1978 that there were many foreigners who had limited information on living in Japan and felt isolated from both the Japanese and international communities. Instead of using “welcome wagon,” a common name for welcoming services in the US, she decided to name the Japan-based organization Welcome Furoshiki. A furoshiki (literally “a cloth for the bath”) originally started out as a cloth used for carrying bath items and other toiletries, and eventually became widely used to carry or wrap just about anything. This furoshiki is used to carry a welcome pack brought by a Welcome Furoshiki representative when they visit a newcomer’s home. 

 

There are Welcome Furoshiki representatives located in Tokyo, Yokohama, Saitama, Chiba, Osaka and Kobe and receiving a visit from a representative is as easy as contacting either the Kanto or Kansai office. After receiving a request for a visit, a Welcome Furoshiki representative will arrange a time and meeting place for the visit, which lasts approximately one hour. Representatives are volunteers who are either foreign expats who come from various multicultural backgrounds or are Japanese who have lived abroad at some point. During the free visit, the representative answers any questions you may have and offers helpful advice that is particular to your family and local area. The representative will also bring a furoshiki which contains maps, earthquake preparatory information, newspapers, medical and church information, and a variety of brochures of various different local services. Since 1983, Welcome Furoshiki has greeted over 15,000 new families and individuals in the Kanto and Kansai areas. 

 

This was being celebrated recently at a party for its 25th anniversary. On hand were members of the international community as well as people from the various sponsors of Welcome Furoshiki. There were several tables of interactive cultural displays that included ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arrangement), kanji artwork, and a furoshiki demonstration that showed the various ways furoshiki can be used. A professional musical group delighted the crowd with a live shamisen performance of “Kanda Matsuri,” To welcome everyone, the founder, Charlotte Kennedy Takahashi, gave a speech emphasizing the principles on which Welcome Furoshiki had been founded upon: a genuine desire to welcome people to a community, a love of Japan, and caring about a community. Indeed these timeless concepts will sustain Welcome Furoshiki as it moves into the future, greeting newcomers as they join their new community in Japan.

 

Tokyo: Tel: (03) 5472-7074

Osaka: Tel: (06) 6441-2584

www.welcomefuroshiki.org 

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