Living in Japan, I have increasingly noticed the growing number of foreign residents in everyday life.
We hear different languages on the streets. We encounter different customs, values, and ways of seeing the world. People from different cultural backgrounds are becoming part of the communities in which we live.
But what does this change mean for our everyday lives?
How does living alongside people from different cultures change a society?
We often think of cultural differences as a potential source of conflict. Yet the presence of different cultures may also give a society an opportunity to see itself from a different perspective.
The United States, one of the most influential nations in the modern world, was shaped through the interaction of people from different cultural and historical backgrounds.
Have we perhaps overlooked the role that cultural diversity and coexistence have played in the making of modern America?
And if different cultures continue to meet and live together, what kind of society might emerge from that encounter?
These are questions worth observing.