Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1116/

Yoshitaro Amano’s Business in Japan (Japanese)

(Japanese) After the Eastern Japan Great Earthquake, Amano did a small job. When the earthquake happened, his father became ill, but he was a big, strong man so he was able to live for many years after that. After that, Amano ran a manju shop in Yokohama. What was it called, again? With making manju, as well, he was amazingly thorough – he used the best flour, the best red beans, and so on. He brought a specialist over, too, and said that he kneaded all the dough.

He did various different things and got really popular. His management style was interesting, too. He ran a tidy shop and wouldn't make very many manju at once. Apparently, he would make fresh ones about three times a day. They would get lines and they would have to keep pushing the closing time further and further back. They would say that if you measured the length of the manju they sold by a railway line, it would reach from Yokohama Station to a station in Tokyo. So, he said it was the duty of the citizens of Yokohama to bring it back to Yokohama. It was a funny statement, so everybody would come clamoring to buy from him. There was this big bank, too, called the South America something or other bank; they say that all the snacks there came from Amano’s manju shop. He was a very clever person.


business economics Japan management prewar World War II Yoshitaro Amano

Date: April 18, 2007

Location: Lima, Peru

Interviewer: Ann Kaneko

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Miyoko Amano (nee: Watanabe) is a Nikkei Nisei born in Lima, Peru. In 1954, she married Yoshitaro Amano, a businessman and a researcher of the Andes Civilization. Taking over the vision of her late husband, she is currently the President of Amano Museum—established from the Yoshitaro’s private collection of artifacts—renowned for its extensive research into the Cancay Culture. (October 2009)

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