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apfseditor Excerpt from Tokyo Shimbun (morning edition) September 20, 2010
APFS (Itabashi Ward, Tokyo), a citizens' group that supports Asians in Japan with various issues such as overstaying, employment, and child-rearing, became an NPO this summer. Young member Jotaro Kato (28) quit his job to become representative director. On the 19th, the group moved its office to the same ward and got off to a new start. "I want to continue being the eyes and hands of those who are troubled, and running alongside them," he said enthusiastically. (Atsushi Okamura)
In the middle of this month, a Myanmar woman in her 30s living in Tokyo visited the office. She was asked to leave the country for overstaying her visa, but she is raising her elementary school-aged daughter alone and cannot leave Japan. Her circumstances are complicated, including divorce and debt. Mr. Kato listened carefully to her story and promised to negotiate with the Immigration Bureau.
One woman who learned about APFS from a magazine as a kind of "refuge" said, "I don't really understand the Japanese system, so I rely on them a lot." Kato handles about 30 such cases and is busy running around every day.
Kato joined APFS in 2003, when he was a university student, while doing research for his graduation thesis. Touched by the sight of a Bangladeshi man at work who remained cheerful even after having a finger amputated, and a Filipino family desperately trying to protect their child born in Japan, he became absorbed in the organization. In March of this year, he quit his job as a staff member at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies to "devote himself to the organization," and when APFS was certified as an NPO in July, he took on the role of representative director.
Becoming an NPO has made it easier for the organization to receive subsidies from both the public and private sectors, and has opened up new avenues for the organization, such as receiving consultation services from the government. "We aim to provide 'solution-oriented consultation' that doesn't pass problems around," says Kato. The organization plans to start more community-based initiatives in the future, such as Japanese language classes for foreign parents and children.