Japanese community of Düsseldorf

There is a Japanese community in Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2008 the Consulate-General of Japan in Düsseldorf (German: Japanisches Generalkonsulat Düsseldorf, Japanese: 在デュッセルドルフ日本国総領事館) stated that about 11,000 Japanese, including both permanent and temporary residents and German-born citizens of Japanese ancestry live in Düsseldorf. Since the 1950s Düsseldorf has hosted over 500 Japanese companies.

In 1985 the general manager of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Düsseldorf, Akira Arikawa, stated that of all of the cities in the world outside Japan, Düsseldorf had the highest concentration of Japanese residents.

In 1950 there was one Japanese person registered as living in Düsseldorf. Beginning in the mid-1950s the Japanese companies returning to Germany in the post-World War II period were mostly settling in Düsseldorf, while in the pre-World War II period the Japanese population was concentrated in Hamburg. Arikawa stated that the Japanese settlement began when ten businesspersons from Tokyo, trying to buy metal ore and machinery for Japan, established their businesses in Düsseldorf. Due to this settlement, information about the Ruhr region circulated within Japanese companies. 300 Japanese were registered as living in the city by 1960. The Japanese Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1966. There were 100 Japanese companies in the Düsseldorf area in 1968.

Due to Düsseldorf's central location within Europe and proximity to other areas in Europe, its location in the Ruhr industrial area, and the proximity to the seaport Duisburg, Japanese companies had a preference for Düsseldorf as they established European operations in the 1970s. By 1973 2,000 Japanese were registered as living in Düsseldorf and 200 Japanese companies were located in the area. By 1980 the number of Japanese companies had increased to 300. As of 1985 there were 6,000 Japanese residents. In 1990 there were 30 Japanese production facilities in the city. By 1992, 7,443 Japanese were registered as living in the city.

Due to the reunification of Germany making Berlin the capital of the country, the decline in the Japanese economy, and the European Single Market causing Japanese companies to move to places with lower costs, since 1992 there had been a decline in the Japanese community. Many of the Japanese companies had shifted to the Netherlands. In the late 1990s the Düsseldorf area housed 520 Japanese companies. In 1999 about 4,500 Japanese people lived in and around Düsseldorf. By the late 1990s there were almost no Japanese production facilities in Düsseldorf, or in all of Germany. Due to the infrastructure and support from the Japanese community, including the Japanese school and the Buddhist centre, many companies that had moved out of Düsseldorf in the early 1990s, especially those that had moved to Berlin, began moving back to Düsseldorf by the late 1990s.

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