ABSTRACT
The wave of internationalization has visibly spread, not only in big cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, but in cities, towns, and villages throughout Japan. Even in so-called rural areas, opportunities to make contact or associate with foreigners have considerably increased. These opportunities include: foreign workers getting jobs in Japan, Japanese men marrying brides from abroad, and events held on an international scale, not to mention encounters with incoming tourists. By the same token, the number of Japanese going abroad for the purpose of sightseeing, business, or official visiting has been increasing dramatically. This has been a conspic uous phenomenon since around 1970, when a symbolic event, EXPO’70, was held in Osaka. Since Japan has entered into an inter-nationalization era, or even a globalization era, the issue of how to keep up with international ization has become an urgent priority for the municipal governments. From its specially-designated “international” section, every municipality promotes exchanges with a sister city abroad. Even some local governments have their own facilities to use for the promotion of international exchanges.2
