The Tamarokuto Science Center ~ The Science Museum Working on "Museums, Local Communities and Cultural Diversity Project" ~

The Tamarokuto Science Center is a science museum, jointly established and operated by five cities in the northern part of the Tama region of Tokyo (Kodaira City, Higashimurayama City, Kiyose City, Higashikurume City, and Nishitokyo City).
In 1994, when the museum first opened, the area now known as Nishitokyo City existed as two separate municipalities - Tanashi City and Hoya City - so there used to be six cities in total.
The Tamarokuto Science Center, which offers a wide range of activities for children and adults, is also working on multilingual brochures and multicultural coexistence.
We interviewed Ms. Hiromi Takao, a leader of the research exchange group, and Ms. Aki Hasuda, of the public relations group.

A Hands-on Science Museum with an Accredited One of the World's Best Planetarium

The Tamarokuto Science Center is marked by a large, round structure. Many children must be excited even before they go in; wondering what it is. This large, round building is "The Science Egg," a planetarium dome with a diameter of 27.5m. This planetarium is one of the largest in the world, and can project over 140 million stars. It is also certified as the planetarium with the most stars projected in the world. It is difficult to see the beautiful stars in central Tokyo, so this facility is appreciated as a more than real experience of the starry sky. Another feature is the five rooms of the permanent exhibition. The exhibition rooms are organized into five themes: "Meet the Science", "Body and Senses", "Systems & Mechanisms", "Life & Environment", and "Geoscience". Through these hands-on exhibits and communication with the staff, visitors will experience discoveries and wonders. The museum's motto is "Do Science!". "We want to be a diverse playground where everyone can enjoy science and learn more about the world we live in," says Ms. Takao. The staff organize and run all the various initiatives, including four special exhibitions a year. They do what they think is interesting, and the whole museum is full of fun and enthusiasm. "The number of visitors to our museum in 2019 was 225,867. The museum is currently closed from 29 February to the end of May, due to the COVID-19 infection control measures but, without that, we could have had a record number of visitors in the fiscal year of 2019," Ms. Takao told us.

Mission to be a Community-Based Science Museum

"The Rokuto News", which introduces the events of the Tamarokuto Science Center, is distributed to all elementary and junior high schools in five cities. Children visit the museum in their fourth grade for science classes. It is a very enviable environment to have a science museum in the local area. It's also a place where adults can get their curiosity piqued, with visitors commenting that if they'd had such facilities when they were children, they might not have found science so daunting. "We are a local science museum, so most of our weekday visitors come from kindergartens, nurseries, and schools. On Saturdays and Sundays, on the other hand, the museum is very busy with families," says Ms. Hasuda. In recent years, there has been an increase in visits from international schools. Chinese and Korean can sometimes be heard in the exhibition rooms. Due to the proximity of the Yokota Air Base, English-speaking people also visit the museum. All the staff at the museum feel directly that the number of foreigners is increasing. However, there were not enough services for non-Japanese visitors. That's why Ms. Takao and her team set up the multicultural coexistence promotion project. Funded by "Museums, Local Communities and Cultural Diversity Project", they are working with a wide range of people. "If the number of foreigners living in Japan increases, it will be difficult to welcome them as guests unless the science museum is accessible to them. We're trying to make it easier for them."

Improving Multilingual Environments, Including "Plain Japanese".

The explanations of the exhibitions are a mixture of Japanese and English, and some are in Japanese only. "The majority of foreigners living in this area are from China, Korea, Nepal, and the Philippines. If we were only dealing with overseas visitors, we could choose English but, if we are dealing with foreigners as residents, we have to be very careful about the second language we choose," says Ms. Takao. This problem is unique to a metropolis like Tokyo. In response to this, the Tamarokuto Science Center has organized staff training of Plain Japanese, and developed multilingual self-guidance brochures (Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, and Plain Japanese). They also organized events for foreigners living in Japan, such as "Let's make a picture book about the science museum in Plain Japanese" and "Let's enjoy the planetarium in Plain Japanese". They initially targeted parents and children of foreigners living in Japan, but had difficulty in attracting them. At that time, people involved in international exchanges asked them whether participation was limited to parents and children. "It seems that foreign parents had a high hurdle in bringing their children. When we changed the requirements from "parents and children" to "adults and children," many people started to come. Foreigners seem to feel more at ease when they get information from people they trust, and are invited to go with them. I thought that it was important for us, as a public facility, to make connections with various people," said Ms. Hasuda, for whom this was a big realization.

Learning Science can Enrich Your Life.

While promoting multilingualization, the museum holds an event called "Science Cafe in English" about twice a year. This is a popular event where cutting-edge researchers give lectures in English, and more Japanese adults than foreigners participate. If you are deeply interested in a given subject, even lectures in English will not be a barrier. The Tamarokuto Science Center, which caters to children and adults alike, also has special exhibitions only for adults. The spring special exhibition "Stones of the 47 Prefectures" was one of them. The exhibition was mainly designed for adults who like geology, but some children also found stones fascinating. Ms. Takao said, "If we use easy words and communicate with children to explain, more children will become interested in rocks. We are working on how to get adults, children, and foreigners interested in science. Being familiar with science and learning about science enriches one's life. It can also lead to a wider range of career choices for children. I believe that local science museums should be places offering such experiences. If local museums and science museums become such places, I think it will bring changes in people's lives and enrich them." From a perspective of multicultural coexistence, she continues to take on various challenges with the staff of the Tamarokuto Science Center.

Aiming to Spread the Circle of Multicultural Coexistence Promotion Throughout Japan

The Tamarokuto Science Center has conducted staff training of Plain Japanese for two years now. In the first year, in addition to the basics, they had a training course of Plain Japanese as a written language. In the second year, they were assisted by eight foreigners living in Japan, and had more practical training regarding their work areas, where staff gave explanations and answered questions from foreign visitors. Since the Japanese language skills of the foreigners who participated in the training were varied, the museum staff realized that the way to respond to visitors would be different for each individual. "I think a great achievement of the training was that I was able to change my mind from ‘I don't know what to do because they are foreigners,' to ‘I'll try to talk to them in Plain Japanese'. I think this is a great result of the training," said Ms. Takao. She said that the staff who underwent the training say that they too changed a lot after participating in the Plain Japanese training. Ms. Hasuda said, "I have become a member of a local NPO, and I am helping them by delivering information in Plain Japanese. I would like to continue to do this in the future." As for their future plans, Ms. Takao said, "We want this museum to become a place where local people and foreign residents can interact, and for it to become a third place for foreign residents. In addition, we would like to support science learning, as a science museum. The project of multicultural coexistence promotion at the Tamarokuto Science Center will continue from now on. The Tamarokuto Science Center hopes that these activities will serve as a springboard for expanding the circle of multicultural coexistence throughout Japan.