Step into the municipal office of this city and you'll find pamphlets in multiple languages lining the walls, as people waiting in lines converse quietly in Portuguese.
Walk along the streets around the station and you'll find an array of Brazilian, Filipino, and Peruvian flags fluttering in the wind among the staple izakaya (Japanese-style pubs) and restaurants you would find anywhere else in Japan.
This is Hamamatsu, a city of some 800,000 people located in southwest Shizuoka Prefecture. It serves as a home for about 24,000 foreign residents from 85 countries, including 9,200 Brazilians and 3,800 Filipinos.
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