On June 13, we visited the Foreign Resident Support Center (FRESC) at CO-MO-RE YOTSUYA in front of Yotsuya Station, where government offices that support foreign residents living and working in Japan are gathered on one floor. The FRESC provides consultation services for foreign residents, support for companies that want to hire foreign residents, and support for local governments that are working to support foreign residents.
Ms. Sakamoto of the NPO Aidensha coordinated the event, and Mr. Watanabe, Director of the Foreign Resident Support Center, Director of the Resident Support Division of the Immigration and Immigration Agency, Mr. Saito, Assistant Director of the Support Division, Ms. Miyake and Mr. Shibata of the Resident Support Coordination Section took time to talk with us. Dr. Fukui of Toho University introduced the mental health of foreign residents living in Japan and Latin Americans of Japanese descent, the difficulties and challenges that foreign residents are currently facing, and an overview of the psychological counseling sessions that we are conducting throughout Japan. Regarding efforts in Mie Prefecture, Ms. Yoneda of the Family Education Research Center FACE spoke about the characteristics and support system for the developmental and language challenges of children connected to foreign countries.
FRESC functions as a one-stop center that supports the activities of foreign residents not only through the Residence Support Division counter, but also through the seamless collaboration of eight public and private organizations: the Residency Management Bureau, the Human Rights Protection Division of the Legal Affairs Bureau, Legal Assistance Center, Tokyo Labor Bureau, Employment Service Center, Visa Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Japan External Trade Organization The general counter is equipped with a multilingual service desk. The general counter was staffed by multilingual staff, and telephone interpretation was also utilized for individual consultations, and a system was implemented so that there was no need to worry about “not knowing where to go for help”.
Please refer to the website as it provides a lot of useful information not only for the foreign residents concerned, but also for companies, governments, and individuals.
https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/support/fresc/fresc01.html
