Interviews

1. What Makes Japanese Cooking In Peru Interesting (Japanese)

2. Integrating As First-Generation Japanese-Peruvian (Japanese)

3. Peru Representative vs. Japan Representative (Japanese)

4. What’s Next as a Chef (Japanese)

5. Japanese-Peruvian Cuisine (Japanese)

6. World-Renowned Peruvian Cuisine (Japanese)

7. Fusion Cuisine (Japanese)

8. Thoughts on Japan (Japanese)

9. Bento menu for hostage incident (Japanese)

10. Delivering Dinner for Former President Fujimori (Japanese)

11. Inspirations for Living Abroad (Japanese)

12. Memories of the Late Yoshitaro Amano (Japanese)

13. Difference Between Past Immigrants and Today’s Immigrants (Japanese)

Konishi,Toshiro

(b. 1962) Japanese restaurant owner and chef in Peru

Integrating As First-Generation Japanese-Peruvian (Japanese)

(Japanese) Well, this is extremely…From my perspective as a Japanese person, this is extremely difficult. I’m a so-called first-generation (Issei) Japanese-Peruvian. In other words, I’m living here now. However, the position of an Issei is very…it’s not very clear. It’s not the Japanese flag, and it’s not the Peruvian flag.

But the Japanese-Peruvian community here is an interesting one. Truth be told, we’re really Japanese. People like me. So among the Japanese-Peruvians here, there are people who are actually not Japanese-Peruvian.

Particularly in the Japanese-Peruvian media, when second- or third-generation Japanese-Peruvians are working hard to succeed at something, I think there probably is, of course, support for them, with a sense of “Good luck” or “Well done”. For us first-generation folks, maybe we don’t get as much recognition because perhaps there’s a sense that, of course, we were going to do what we did, and besides, we’re Japanese. So in that way, we first-generation people may find ourselves in kind of a vague, ambiguous position.

communities generations identity immigrants immigration Issei Japan migration Peru

Date: April 18, 2007

Location: Lima, Peru

Interviewer: Ann Kaneko

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

Interviewee Bio

Toshiro Konishi was born on July 11, 1953, the fourth son of a long-established Japanese restaurant owner in Saito City, Miyazaki Prefecture. Having played in the kitchen from around the age of six, at 11-years-old, Konishi began helping out in the kitchen with other chef candidates. Then in 1971, at age 16, he headed to Tokyo and became a chef at the restaurant “Fumi”.

In 1974, he moved to Peru with Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, known in America, Japan, and elsewhere for his Japanese fusion cuisine at his restaurant, “Nobu”. After working at the Japanese restaurant “Matsuei” for ten years, he opened “Toshiro’s” and “Wako” in a Sheraton hotel in Lima. In 2002, he also became manager of “Sushi Bar Toshiro’s” in the San Isidro region.

Aside from running the restaurants, he taught at San Ignacio de Loyola University, participated in culinary festivals around the world, introduced innovative cuisine known as “Peruvian Fusion” (a mix of Japanese and Peruvian cuisines), and received numerous awards. In 2008 he became the first Japanese chef based in Latin America to receive the Japanese government’s Minister's Prize from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. (October 2009)