Get to Know IMM Tokyo

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Get to Know IMM Tokyo

A list of historical information, articles, and video URLs related to Immigration Museum Tokyo and “Art Museum • ‘Seeing Us: Living in Japan with Roots Overseas’”, including a briefing session held in 2019 and a report on our lecture series that featured people working in the field of multiculturalism in society.

  • History of Activities about IMM Tokyo

  • 2010-March 2013

    Artist Shigeaki Iwai launched Immigration Museum Tokyo as a pilot program to establish a Japanese immigration museum based in Koganei, Tokyo. In March 2011, the museum held "Newcomer's View: A Pilot Project for Immigration Museum Tokyo". Artworks were created in collaboration with local residents (homemakers, students, artists, and others) and non-Japanese residents in the area.

  • February 2014

    Activities based in Koganei City ended. Activities were continued as a part of the art project "Art Access Adachi: Downtown Senju – Connecting through Sound Art", which is based in the Senju area of Adachi City, Tokyo. In addition, in Adachi City, IMM met and developed a collaborative project with the Umeda Catholic Church and those of Filipino roots that make up its parish.

  • September 2015

    The exhibition "Immigration Museum Tokyo - What Happens in Everyday Life" was held at an underused house in Kita-Senju, Adachi City. Four artworks were exhibited through an exchange between 17 non-Japanese residents and eight international and Japanese students who were recruited through an open call.

  • October-December 2015

    The talk series "Multicultural Coexistence" (general and arts-focused sessions; four sessions total) was held to learn about the current state of multiculturalism in Japanese society.

  • 2016-2018

    "Makilala, One by One from the Philippines: Understanding, Meeting, and Dancing" was held mainly in collaboration with the members of the Filipino community gathered at Umeda Catholic Church. Director Hatsumi Abe interviewed Filipino parishioners and presented a video installation in a Japanese house that told the stories of their different lives, from living in the Philippines to moving to Japan, as well as their experiences working, marrying, raising children, and socializing with their neighbors in Japan.

  • May・October 2017

    Members of IMM Tokyo visited Melbourne to exchange views as part of a mutual exchange program between IMM Melbourne and IMM Tokyo. In October of the same year, IMM Melbourne members and artists were invited to Japan for a special symposium entitled "Immigration Museum - Dialogue between Australia and Japan: Community Engagement for Cultural Diversity".

  • 2019-2020

    With the Tokyo Olympics, Paralympics, and the revision of the Immigration Law, IMM planned the exhibition "Art Museum ‘Seeing Us: Living in Japan with Roots Overseas’" for the year 2020, when not only inbound tourism but also multicultural society would be in the spotlight. For this exhibition, IMM formed a team of IMM Project Members (formally known as IPM, now called Neighbors) to learn and work together in a multicultural society. In addition, with the aim of fostering momentum, the lecture series "The Power of Art in a Multicultural Society" (5 lectures in total) was held, in addition to an open call for artworks by both professional and non-professional artists with roots abroad.

  • Present

    Due to the impact of COVID-19, the plan to hold this exhibition in 2020 was switched to an online museum that introduces "multicultural society" in contemporary Japan.