As part of an exchange, Yokogawa employee Rei Matsumoto from Japan was a guest at Yokogawa Deutschland GmbH in Ratingen for around eight weeks. Here she describes some of her impressions and thoughts.
Düsseldorf: Biggest Japanese community after London and Paris
Yokogawa Germany is located in Ratingen, which is close to Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf is known as one of the biggest cities in Europe where many Japanese live. It is even called as “the capital city of Japan along the Rhein River”. What brought so many Japanese to Düsseldorf? In 1920’s, Hamburg and Berlin were the main cities for Japanese industry. After the Second World War, the demand for machinery and heavy industry products increased in Japan, and Düsseldorf – then known as the “Ruhr’s writing desk”– was the ideal place to acquire this sought-after technology, in particular the know-how for steel and machine construction. Since then, as the international commercial succeeded, the Japanese community in Düsseldorf grew. Nowadays, there are more than 380 Japanese companies in Düsseldorf. What is more, Düsseldorf has the third biggest Japanese community after London and Paris.
Japanese Day in Düsseldorf
In Düsseldorf, there is a big festival called “Japan Tag” (= Japanese Day) in May. On this day, more than six hundred thousand people gather. Along the Rhein River, there are a lot of Japanese food stands, culture experience booths such calligraphy and flower arrangement, and martial arts demonstration, and so on. At night, fireworks show is held, and you can see some people wearing Yukata (a kind of Kimono). It can be said that Japanese culture is now a part of the life in Düsseldorf.
Festival in Japan
What is like the “festival” in Japan? Just as Düsseldorf, Köln, and Mainz has its own carnival, each prefecture or city in Japan has its own festival. It is said that the number of the festivals in Japan reaches to more than a hundred thousand. Among so many festivals, there are three major festivals. One of them is “Kanda Matsuri” in Tokyo, where Yokogawa headquarter is located.
Kanda Shrine was established in 730. It’s not known exactly how the Tenjin Matsuri started, but it is considered that it had started almost at the same time as the establishment of the shrine. It was the Edo era (1603 – 1863) when Tenjin Matsuri became recognized as the important festival. Since the famous Shogun (a general), Tokugawa Ieyasu, had a big battle coming up (which is called Sekigahara-no-tatakai), he held a ritual to pray for victory at Kanda Shrine. As a result, he won the decisive battle only in half a day and achieved the national unification. The date of the victory was same as that of the Kanda festival. Therefore, Shogun Ieyasu worshiped the Kanda Shrine. Since then, it is still one of the traditional and famous Japanese festivals. At Kanda Matsuri, you can see the parade of thousands people wearing traditional festival clothes and carrying “Mikoshi” (portable shrine) on their shoulder.
Yokogawa Festival in Tokyo
Yokogawa Festival in Tokyo
Yokogawa Headquarter also has its own summer festival in its soccer field every summer. It is open not only for the Yokogawa employees but also the neighbors, and more than thirteen thousand people come to this festival. It is the day for the board members and managers to appreciate the employees for their hard work and the neighbors for their sincere cooperation.
Each department of Yokogawa Headquarter opens its own food stands, such as Japanese noodles, beer, Chicken skewers and even make a sign of the stand by themselves. In addition, there is a stage in the center of the field, and events are going on there all the time. A few years ago, the members did a band performance, which livened up the audience.
If you have any chance to visit Japan, it would be worth to try.
