Ōizumi has welcomed foreign workers and boasts everything from Brazilian supermarkets to Turkish kebab shops

An unassuming industrial town in Japan, far from the busy tourist hubs of Tokyo and Kyoto, is in the middle of an unprecedented social transformation. Ōizumi, rather than the country’s capital, is at the forefront of Japan’s foreigner-friendly future.

The northern Kantō plain is an unlikely setting for the country’s experiment in multiculturalism, but this is provincial Japan with a twist. Signs at the local railway station – Nishi-Koizumi – are written in six languages. At the ticket office, a member of staff deals patiently with a customer struggling to communicate in Japanese.