We welcome your support!

The Free Choice Foundation is a grass-roots movement that provides a platform for individuals to voice their concerns about issues affecting expatriates and permanent residents in Japan. We wholeheartedly welcome support from both the international community of Japan and the Japanese public. Here are some ways in which you can help:

 

To start with, please join our Petition Drive . . .

You'll find a form called 'Stand with Free Choice' on the homepage of this site. Please take a few moments to fill it out - along with any comments or feelings you have about issues in Japan - and click the 'Declare your Support' button. Your comments will be added to our Petitions and sent to the Japanese government. If we don't tell the government the problems that we are faced with, they will probably never know. An example might be, 'I have been living in Japan for more than 15 years and have never once broken a law. I always carry my alien registration card but feel embarrassed when stopped by a policeman in public even though I was doing nothing out of the ordinary. The police should be made to adhere to a protocol and there should be a hotline to call for visitors and residents who feel abused by this.' We already have some lawmakers interested in our movement and they sincerely want to hear from us, so please give your views.

 

Tell your friends . . .

While Free Choice has run some ads in newspapers and magazines, nothing works better than good old word-of-mouth. Please ask your friends to visit this site to find out what we are about and what we are doing, and encourage them to to add their voice to ours by submitting the online Petition form.

 

Make use of the internet . . .

The internet has become the tool of choice for grass-roots movements. Please post about our movement in your favorite forums, social networks and blogs. Most forums will allow you to include a link offsite. While each forum works a little differently, in most cases placing a link with "http://" as part of the URL will automatically turn the entry into a convenient clickable link. Here's our URL:

http://www.freechoice.jp/

Have a website or blog of your own? We invite you to place a link to our site along with a paragraph or article about our movement.

 

 

If you belong to an organization . . .

If you have an affiliation with an organization such as a Chamber of Commerce or other group, please make them aware of the challenges that expatriates are faced with and politely ask their stance on these topics. Perhaps they would like to join hands with Free Choice in confronting these issues.

 

Contribute an article . . .

If you are a journalist, or are very knowledgeable about an issue and would like to contribute an article, we would be very pleased to consider it for publication on our website.

 

Contact your ambassador or consulate general . . .

In many cases, there are foreign governments that already share on stance on some of these issues. A little gaiatsu can make the difference.

 

Make a donation . . .

Free Choice is a grassroots movement and we do not charge membership fees. Like most organizations, we need funds to carry out our activities. We have no paid employees and all funds are used for advertising, website production and organizational overhead. If you would like to make a donation, please contact us.

 

Stay abreast of the latest developments . . .

Be sure to visit the website often to keep up-to-date on the latest news about issues that are important to foreigners here in Japan -- then spread the word!