Abstract
It is said that Japanese multiculturalism neglects political power and doesn't aim at political change. Thought Japanese language class is a contact zone in which foreigners and Japanese meet in unequal relations, to build trust there is easier than to build it in other supporting organizations. Does Japanese language classes have the possibility to redress these unequal relations?
To investigate this assertion, I investigated a multicultural festival held by Z Japanese class in Z city in Nagano prefecture by observing the festival and interviewing the related parties. This festival asked foreigners to introduce their own nations by displaying posters and objects, and offering food at their booths and play music and dance on stage.
This report looks at the festival from various viewpoints: the Japanese organizer’s concept and management, the spectator's reactions and the participating foreigner’s reactions. The organizer aimed to develop “exchange on the same eye level” among the people at the festival. The attempt failed, however. The organizer erased the actual, current reality of foreign residents in Japan, but demanded to create touristic presentations of each “nation”, and thus, in affinity with the organizer, the Japanese spectators’ gaze became that of tourists. As a result, uncomfortable feeling and complaints of foreigners were concealed and gap of gazes were created between Japanese and foreigners.
Why did the multicultural festival limit to a touristic gaze and left foreigners' uncomfortable feeling and complaints unseen? I will look at this problem to analyze the present state of multiculturalism among volunteers and citizens in Japan.
