Amid growing anti-foreigner sentiment in Japan, Hamamatsu still welcomes foreign talent

The city has rolled out assimilation initiatives and eyes workers from India

- Walter Sim

The central Japan city of Hamamatsu held a two-day India Festival from Sept 13 to 14. Such festivities are the city's way to promote assimilation and integration of its burgeoning community of foreign residents, while introducing foreign cultures to local Japanese citizens.

(PHOTO: COURTESY OF HAMAMATSU CITY)

He was a wide-eyed 24-year-old when he first stepped onto Japanese soil in 1998, barely able to speak a word of the language. Now, Dr Binu Lal Sadanandan has built a life in Japan and witnessed the country’s evolving demographic landscape.

He took a leap of faith when he decided to pursue a PhD in geosciences at Shizuoka University, arriving in a pre-smartphone era with no easy access to online maps and translation apps, and fuelled by a fascination with a country known for its anime, omotenashi hospitality and monozukuri craftsmanship.

Now 51, the Indian national has spent more than half his life in Japan, where he is a permanent resident working at asbestos analytics startup Alfred, based in the central Japan city of Hamamatsu. He has a 15-year-old son with his Vietnamese wife, an interpreter whom he met in Japan.

“My wife did not want to move to India, nor I to Vietnam, and we both felt Japan was a better place to raise our child,” he told The Straits Times, adding that their son is enrolled in a Japanese school.

When Dr Sadanandan came to Japan in 1998, there were 1.25 million foreign residents, or less than1 per cent of the then population of 126.4 million.

They now number nearly four million, making up 3.21 per cent of the population of 123.3 million as at June 2025, according to the latest government figures on Oct 10. In just six months, the foreign population grew by 187,000 people.