In June 1990, the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act was revised and next year marks the 30th anniversary. That period was when the second generation, third generation were rapidly starting to go to Japan.

The Japanese government thought that if they were the second and third generation, they could probably speak Japanese, understand the culture to some extent and would be able to quickly adapt to Japan. At that time, I was even asked in an interview what I thought about that and I remember I said something like “it’s a mistake to think that Japanese diaspora and Japanese people are the same thing”.

In reality, it ended up being just like that. They thought they could speak Japanese but in reality, they couldn’t. And if they brought kids along, those kids were not able to adjust to Japanese schools. And so, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Labor ended up coming to Sao Paulo because they needed organizations that would train the Japanese diaspora who were coming to Japan ahead of time on items like the Japanese language, Japanese culture, laws and customs. They spoke with cultural associations, prefectural associations and support associations, and from each of those three groups five people were dispatched to form a discussion committee. And as a result, I became the Chairman of CIATE (Centro de Informação e Apoio ao Trabalhador no Exterior, Japan-Brazil Employment Service Center). I’ve been doing that continuously for the past 27 years.