The JMIS Movement started when one Tokyo YWCA member was paired with an international student in 1961. In those days, the poor environment for receiving international students was causing them many difficulties. Our idea was, though without offering live-in housing, to welcome a student from abroad as a member of each family, and provide him/her comfort and long-lasting friendship. Since then, about 4200 students from 83 countries and regions, mostly Asian, have enjoyed their Japanese homes.
Through its history of over 40 years, JMIS Movement has added to it new fields of activities for all the international students, in order to meet the changing situations both in the students’ home countries and in Japan. Among those activities are publication of books based on our research on international students’ problems, petitions to the government, and initiation of a scholarship system. A “Saturday Conversation Lounge” for free talking in Japanese and an “Advisory Room” for consultation and information were set up in 1979 and 1990, respectively, and are still in practice today.