Attended in the 60th anniversary of Yuuza Oyama arcade encouragement Union

I am Kato, representative of APFS. Thank you for always looking at this blog.

I attended in the the 60th anniversary of Yuuza Oyama arcade encouragement Union on May 18th, Tuesday night. APFS has realized that we aims at being a community-based NGO and participated in the arcade since 2009.
It was a great ceremony that a ward headman of Itabasiku, local members of the House of Representatives and other prominent people got together.

We looked back the history of these six decades and confirmed to make this arcade more revitalized.
The average of age was perhaps forty five years old so, I was overwhelmingly younger among them.
The arcade owners kindly told me when and what kind of events are going on and what is necessary for being acquainted with the community.

Then, we are probably able to open branches in summer festival (so-called “Bonodori”), the arcade holds, this year too.
The “Asian” color will be added into the arcade.
APFS may be going to open Burmese and Pilipino food branches.

People who wear Yukata will be sent out so that it will be very suitable if you who want to see the fascinating arcade.
The summer festival will be on July 31st and August 1st.
We will let you know on this web cite if the details are decided.

Handing Out Food

 Originally two young members of APFS staff started this BLOG…  For me, this is the first time to write.
 I feel the pressure, so I will try to write some more from now on.
 It is not exactly the latest news, but this is the report of our food distribution at the end of November.
 We are in the middle of an unprecedented recession.

The living conditions of undocumented foreigners are also getting worse…
 We thought that we also have to do something, so we started our food support project at APFS.
 We received help from “Second Harvest Japan” in the form of almost 300 kg of rice, beverages, and snacks for our foreign families.

 The rice included the famous brand of “Hitomebore”, and we had cookies from a famous coffee shop chain. It was more than satisfying. 

 Instead of one-sided distribution by Japanese staff, rather receiving foreign members took the lead and shared the food.
 At first we did not know how to divide the 300 kg of rice, but Filipino and Burmese members solved the problem in a swift and practical way. Everything goes smoother if we help each other!
 Those families, who received from the food, told us that it really helps and that they are grateful.
I would like to thank everyone who took part in this food support project!
Thank you all!


 “Honestly, we would like to work and help ourselves,”
Many undocumented foreigners have such thoughts.

 However, various barriers exist for them because of their status.
Still, it is also true that they have children.
These children may be hungry all the time.
That is something we do not want to let happen.
On the other hand, we also think that it is not favorable to continue only with food distribution in the long term.
 Even if it is difficult, I believe that everyone should find a way to self-reliance.
The damage inflicted by this year’s recession seems to be tremendous.
We are still in an emergency state.
Hence, I think that we need to keep up with handing out food for the time being.
 Next time, I will report on the following.

Happy Birthday!

We opened a birthday party for Mr. Atsushi Nishida who has been engaded in the support of people from Myanmar for many-many years. Mr. Nishida taught Japanese for more than 2,000 people and provided consultative support too. He is already over 80, but still continues his energetic activities. For example, once in a week he visits peoples from Myanmar who are detained in the Immigration Bureau in Shinagawa.




At APFS we were also helped out many times in various situations by Mr. Nishida. We hope that our good relationship will continue for many more years in the future!