Report on the Earth Festival Kanagawa 2012

    On the weekend of the 19 and 20th of May, the Earth Festival was organized in Yokohama-shi, in Kanagawa Prefecture. Putting under the spotlight the various ethnic groups and cultures of the people living in Japan, this very popular yearly event features food stalls, dances, music performances, a world bazaar and lots of fun.
   
    Starting from Saturday morning, and until Sunday evening, colorful and smiling artists followed one another on different stages offered by the organizers. Arriving from Hongo-dai station, a mere 10 minutes train ride from Kamakura, the festival starts with the world bazaar, a very calm and peaceful outdoor market with lots of handicraft, clothing, jewelry, and various hand-made items. Inside of the nearby Earth Plaza building was the main stage and many workshops and happenings in the different stairs.
   
    But the core of the festival was of course the busy, steamy and noisy food stalls village. Situated right under the bazaar, all around a little pool containing an island where musical performances and various talks were held, there was food from all over the world, from the Spanish Empanadas, Thai noodles, Bangladeshi curry and Nan, to Indonesian Lawar, Indian beer or Brazilian style churros. All the different smells, colors, faces made it a very enjoyable event.
APFS held a Bangladeshi food stall, featuring curry, tandoory chicken, kebab and lassi. The delicious coconuts chicken curry prepared by the team of Bangladeshi professional cook was a huge success! Thank you very much to all the people who came to the stand.

    Don’t hesitate to participate next year !

Fourth hearing of the trial for compensation for Mr. Suraj

Today from 4PM in the court room 705 was held the fourth hearing of the trial aiming at State compensation for the incident that led to M. Suraj’s death.

The seats for the public were full again, which has a great importance for the following of the trial.

The state didn’t hand out the documents explaining their objection by the designated deadline of the 14th of May, and will have to do it by the 20th of June.

Regarding the dishonesty of the State, the Judge also referred to the fact that the criminal case does have to progress in any way.

He strongly stated that the state has to present objections by the next hearing. The points at stake becoming clear, we will be able to make progress.

After today’s trial we moved to the LAwyers building where the Attorneys at law spoke about the progress of the trial up until now, perspectives from now on and such topics (as shown on the picture).

Many questions were asked by the participants, and we were able to share with each other the cruelty and the irrationality of the incident.

The next hearing will take place in the court room 705 of Tokyo District court from 11 :30AM on the 30th of July.

Please everyone, come as an observer to the hearing, every single person lends a great power to the case.

A message from volunteer

Hello,

My name is Theo. I am coming to APFS as a volunteer since April 2012.

I want to study about the migrations to Japan, so I came here as an exchange student. Spending time, talking, working together with the people of APFS, who try to find solutions for the foreigners living here, it is a very rich experience. Whether they have the right visa or not, foreigners are treated not as such but as human beings, and I feel it is a very good thing.

There are many legal regulations. But if you try to hold together with the foreigners that can be lost in the maze of the laws, regulations, and a sometimes very unfriendly society, we can make a better society !

If you don’t have the right paper, I realized daily life can become extremely difficult. I never had trouble with getting a cell phone, getting registered or daily life matters, thanks to my foreign student visa. But, listening to the stories of people in different situations, I realized that it was not so easy for other people. Finding an apartment, a job, divorce, cellphone, a lot a things of very difficult.

While I’m in Japan, I don’t want to do research in an office. I want to be on the field, to grasp the situation.

So, as much as I can, I want to participate in finding solutions with this association, and with the people living here.

The second trial on Mr. Suraj's case

 The second trial on Mr. Suraj's case (claim for damages against the Japanese government) was held on January 16 at 2 o'clock at courtroom 705 at Tokyo District Court.

 The response of the government was exactly the same as the last trial: the judgment should be suspended until the criminal punishment is decided. We were disappointed at the government's insincere attitude toward the case. To this statement, the chief justice stated that the government must consider the case along with criminal punishment. From the next trial, we expect that the government make clear the problems of the case, and that we see some progress.

 The next trial (the third trial) will be held on March 12 (Mon.) from 2 o'clock at courtroom 705.

 Please continue to support us by observing the trial at court!

Exibition of Mr. Suraj's paintings

We are going to hold the exibition of Mr. Suraj's paintings!

Mr.Suraj's paintings are going to be exibited at the cafe near Nishi-Ogikubo station for 2days
You can see what kind of person Mr. Suraj was and feel his heart through his works.


Also, you can enjoy African cuisine made by Mr. Suraj's wife. The profit made by African cuisine is going to be donated to Suraj Foundation.
Please join us and enjoy his works and African cuisine.

Date： 12/10（Sat）・11（Sun）

Place：KISSCAFE (5 mins walk from Nishi-Ogikubo station）

　　　　http://www.kiss-cafe.jp/

Getting to know their real aspect.....

I’m Chika, a new volunteer. I joined APFS from this October as I was interested in problems of irregular immigrants in Japan. Also, I am writing a senior thesis on this topic now. Though I am new to APFS, I am always surprised at the variety of people coming here to talk and variety of problems they have.


Along with volunteering, I am conducting interviews to irregular immigrants with them face to face, I realized how inaccurate images most people have on them. They are far from the ‘criminal image’ portrayed on the media. Most people live without knowing what kind of problems those foreigners have, even though we are all living in the same community. I can’t help but wonder how we can tackle this reality.

Bangladesh concert

Hi, I’m Ikeda as a volunteer for A.P.F.S. On November 6th I went to a concert with the representative Mr. Kato. The concert was held by Uttoron, a Bangladesh culture group in Japan.


Most of the audience was Bangladesh. I felt as if I were in a foreign country because of some women with the beautiful ethnic costumes or the speaking voice in a foreign language. On that day it was an Islamic holiday, so I often heard people said “Eid Mubarak!” (the greeting for the holiday).

The concert was consisted of Bangladesh ethnic songs, dances, and a drama. They showed Japanese translation on the screen. It helped us easily to understand the lyrics. They sang various songs from a famous singer’s song in Bangladesh to a Japanese traditional song “Yagi-bushi”. Not only the traditional dances and instruments of Bangladesh, but also surge of excitement coming from the audience gave a tremendous boost to the concert.

In this year, Uttoron has their 23rd concert. I am really amazed at knowing it. I hope the concert to continue into the future.