A quote from the website of Diversity Japan, headed by Taro Tamura, goes as follows:

As the demands of our society and lifestyles diversify, an organization with diverse human resources possesses a distinct advantage in providing the services that its customers demand. The value of diversity is something that is best learned through experience. Our experience, for instance, of living in a community as a foreigner, raising children, or giving or receiving care makes it clear that diverse human resources will only increase in value in the future. We believe that a diverse organization is supple and strong. It is vital to implement a strategy to incorporate a diverse membership into your organization.

At Diversity Japan, we do not limit ourselves to working towards equal employment opportunities or encouraging people to think about their work-life balance. We try to offer a "prescription" for those seeking to take advantage of the inherent opportunities offered by diversity to make their community or organization more "supple and strong."

Mr. Tamura's philosophy as declared above, which has supported his pioneering work to date, can be traced back to that day in 1995.


Video rental shop's telephone takes role of hotline for foreign victims

Mr. Tamura worked at a video rental shop aimed at Filipinos living in Japan when the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred. Along with the rental service of Filipino films and dramas, the video shop in Osaka also offered free advice and assistance to many of its customers who had problems in their lives.

I first thought an earthquake struck the Tokai region, where a major earthquake had long been predicted. I was sleeping at home in Itami when the shake arrived. The quake jolted the bed with me in it so violently that I thought I would die. The light didn't work, nor did the TV or radio. Anyway, I went to Itami station to take a train to get to work. But a worker of a station kiosk said, "No, you’re kidding. There are no trains running today!" Then I realized for the first time that my hometown was in a serious situation.

The next day, he managed to get to the video shop, finding that all the shelves had fallen over and the phone rang off the hook with calls from Filipino customers. At the time, as cellphones and the Internet had not yet come into widespread use, most foreigners living in Japan usually made calls from public phones using telephone cards. Besides, as all public phone calls were designated as emergency priority, the calls from his customers could easily get through to the shop.

In the hope of helping such foreigners who could make telephone contact, Mr. Tamura opened a hotline for them only two days after the earthquake and spread the information about it via FM radio programs and by handing out leaflets at evacuation sites. The hotline was from the beginning multilingual, providing support in seven languages including English, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. A week later, thanks to assistance provided by volunteer interpreters, the support was made available in 20 languages for 24 hours a day. Although Mr. Tamura originally planned to run the hotline for two weeks, he extended the service for six months to respond to a flood of inquiries.

There was a huge information gap between foreigners who spoke English and those who did not. While English-speaking foreigners had already learned in bulletins written in English that they needed to go to ward offices to receive subsidies and therefore called the hotline to ask for advice about required procedures, non-English-speaking foreigners, having no access to such information, first talked about a more fundamental problem: "We need money!" Therefore, we had to figure out for each person what support he or she needed.

Photo:Mr. Tamura looking back on January 17, 1995


Multicultural Center established in July, 1995

During the six months after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, in which almost 180 foreigners lost their lives, Mr. Tamura and his peers extended the scope of their activities. Assistance to address issues concerning health insurance was one example. Until the end of the January following the quake, free medical treatment was provided to anyone who was affected. However, when an exception was made to the requirements for the free medical care in February, people who had no health insurance became ineligible for the service. To address this issue, Mr. Tamura strove hard to realize a project supported by a reconstruction fund that enabled any foreign residents suffering illness or injury from the earthquake, even illegal (overstaying) residents, to receive medical treatment for free. In the course of such activities, Mr. Tamura became aware of a fact:

They were in need of help not only due to the earthquake, but because they always have had problems in their daily lives. I noticed that this social issue was revealed only after the earthquake put them in a more difficult situation. To tackle this overlooked problem, I set up an organization named Multicultural Center in July, 1995. In 2006, the organization evolved into the current Institute for Human Diversity Japan, for the purpose of making communities more heterogeneously tolerant as well as providing support to foreign residents with problems.

Mr. Tamura founded the Multicultural Center at the young age of 23. Some people, finding his dedication admirable, asked him his age, but didn't believe his answer until they were shown his driving license, because they thought he was older. Mr. Tamura recalls those days, "Being in that emergency situation made me realize clearly what I could do. Then, my efforts were recognized regardless of my age or social position"




Equality and diversity may appear similar but are not the same

Diversity refers to the richness of variety. Diversity Japan's main activities include providing advice and consulting services to companies to help them understand, instill, and implement the concept of diversity. Believing the first step to make a society tolerant of diversity is to raise awareness in those who have a strong social impact, the institute has made efforts to foster change in companies' recruitment policies and working environments.

We start by helping employers understand the fundamental idea of diversity. Recently, a greater emphasis has been placed on utilizing women's career skills in an effort to promote diversity. However, providing fair employment opportunities and embracing diversity are not the same, although they may appear similar. To put it extremely, a fair screening process results in employment unduly weighted towards women if successful applicants are only women. Diversity in the workplace in such a case will be reduced. Thus, we first need to change employment systems.

To take another example, diversity in the workplace can be promoted by creating such a work environment that allows employees to work on a three-day-week basis for the care of their long-standing diseases, or be absent from work if their child has a fever. Being diverse is in a sense being unequal. So much tolerance as to accept it will bring diversity to society.

As Mr. Tamura says, if efforts are made on a daily basis to create a society that is tolerant of variety, minorities and vulnerable people will not be neglected in the event of an emergency like an earthquake. The situations of these people will also be taken into account in decision making in the first place.

"An organization comprising people of diverse backgrounds is supple and strong." Believing so, Mr. Tamura has made steady efforts to promote diversity in organizations, which will aggregate into a diverse society. When he supported volunteers after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Mr. Tamura made use of that experience with organizations and contributed to the provision of oft-forgotten psychological care to children and physical support to people with disabilities who were living in evacuation centers.

Photo:Mr. Tamura says that diversity involves inequality in a way, but we need to create a tolerant society that embraces the "unequal" diversity.


Aiming to establish a reputation for Kobe as a city competent at carrying out post-disaster restoration and developing communities

Forty percent of the current population of Kobe is composed of people who did not experience the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake because they were born or moved into Kobe after the disaster. Those who played an active role in their 30s or 40s at the time of the earthquake are now in their 50s or 60s. Now that 20 years have passed since the earthquake, Mr. Tamura feels the need to reconsider what is necessary to make Kobe a comfortable place for everyone to live in.

College students from Kobe travel to the Tohoku region to volunteer in the Great East Japan Earthquake-stricken area. But, they have little to tell affected people or those assisting them. They cannot answer questions like, "What was done to address situations like this in Kobe?" because they don't have knowledge based on their own experience. So, I think it is now essential to pass down what we have learned from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and further accumulate knowledge to share with people in other disaster-hit areas while rethinking the future direction of developing the city of Kobe. I also hope for administrative commitment in this regard.

Mr. Tamura has held a post in the Reconstruction Agency since 2012, sticking to his beliefs.

Post-disaster reconstruction and diversity share something in common, in that both have an entrance but no exit. As the reconstruction process goes on, even more attention should be paid to make sure that it does not fail to take someone into account or exclusively adopt one-sided plans.

Photo:Support activity in Tohoku–4:　Diversity Japan staff have provided reconstruction assistance in the Tohoku region. They offer a silent prayer for the Great East Japan Earthquake victims.

Photo:Support activity in Tohoku–1: They also support joint volunteer activities by students from Kobe and other areas of Kansai

Lastly, Mr. Tamura talks about his views on the future.

I want more people to become exponents of diversity. I think my duty is to stay in business and develop young people who will carry on our activities. For that reason, I hope for Kobe to provide an environment favorable to community and business activities in which motivated young people are given opportunities to play an active part.

(Interviewed and written by Yoshihito Higashi)
This article was created with the cooperation of greenz.jp.