Nationality Revealed through Behavior: Serious Polarization Among Warabi City Foreigners

In a worn-out apartment in a residential area near Warabi Station (Saitama), Muslims are steadily being drawn in. “The truth is this room is a mosque.” In mid-December last year, Tarek Mahmud, a Bangladeshi, who was attending prayers at this mosque, confessed in fluent Japanese.

“Every Friday, Muslims gather here. Nearly 90% of them are Bangladeshi. In recent years, the number of Bangladeshis living in Warabi has continued to increase, but on the other hand, many also express a desire to return to their homeland. Despite the rising cost of living, wages are not increasing, and as foreigners, they are required to pay into the pension system, making life quite challenging.”

Warabi City has a foreign population of approximately 8,500 people, accounting for 11.3% of the total population. In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in Bangladeshi and Vietnamese residents, each forming their own communities. With a significant presence of Kurdish people as well, the area has even given rise to the term “Warabistan.” In this increasingly diverse environment, one wonders what the foreign residents think. Let’s explore their situation.

When visiting real estate agencies in Warabi City, one may notice many that do not accept foreign clients. When asked why, the response often relates to past incidents of non-payment of rent by foreign tenants, which made landlords wary. This seems to be a downside of the rapid increase in the foreign population. Nevertheless, there are indeed real estate agencies in Warabi City that are willing to mediate for foreign clients.

“In the past few years, rental prices in Warabi have increased by over 10%. For a single-person household, the average monthly rent is around 70,000 to 80,000 yen. About 10-20% of our clients are foreigners. We’ve noticed an increase in people of Turkish and Asian descent. Warabi has one of the highest land price appreciation rates in the prefecture, and despite the rent not being cheap, there’s been a significant rise in the foreign population. We don’t have a clear answer as to why this is happening.”

When you exit the east exit of Warabi Station, you’ll immediately see an internet cafe. This place gained significant media attention around 2008 as an internet cafe where you could register your residence. It was possible to register your address and even have mail delivered there, and it was feasible to live there for around 60,000 yen per month. However, according to the staff, “the residency registration service was abolished about 2-3 years ago.”

Around 7 p.m., as people were heading home, they gathered at the supermarket in front of the station. Foreign nationals stood out among them. When I approached and spoke to them, many of them were Vietnamese. One Vietnamese person, who said they worked for a trading company, expressed their thoughts deeply.

“The rent may be high, but there are many Vietnamese food stores and restaurants, making it easy to live here. There are plenty of Vietnamese people, and information exchange is active. That’s why new Vietnamese residents quickly adapt to the city.”

It was interesting to hear the phrase from Japanese residents of Warabi that “you can tell someone’s nationality by their behavior.” For example, Kurds gather in groups in front of the station, Vietnamese tend to gather at chain restaurants, and Chinese individuals are often seen acting independently. While this is purely anecdotal observation, it serves as evidence that foreigners have become thoroughly integrated into the community.