Interviews

1. Not too concerned about learning Japanese when he was growing up in Brazil (Portuguese)

2. The reason why the city of Oizumi became “Brazilian town” (Portuguese)

3. Japanese Brazilians living in Oizumi (Portuguese)

4. The reason why he immigrated to Japan (Portuguese)

5. Advantages of living in Japan (Portuguese)

6. More government supports in the city of Oizumi for Japanese Brazilians (Portuguese)

7. Oizumi, the Brazilian town in Japan (Portuguese)

8. Future of the Japanese Brazilian community in Japan (Portuguese)

9. Lehman shock’s impact on the Japanese Brazilian community in Japan (Portuguese)

10. 3.11 Earthquake stopped his business in Sendai and Fukushima (Portuguese)

11. Transition from a factory worker to starting his own business (Portuguese)

Shikota,Antonio Shinkiti

(b. 1962) Japanese Brazilian owner of a Brazilian products store in Japan.

Not too concerned about learning Japanese when he was growing up in Brazil (Portuguese)

(Portuguese)

My name is Antonio Shinkiti Shikota. I was born in Campinas [in the state of São Paulo], on September 12, 1962. My parents are Japanese. They are ... My father is from Sendai and my mother from Miyagi-ken. My parents spoke Japanese at home. But I wasn’t really into it, ya know, even though they said I’d have to learn Japanese ... I wasn’t too concerned with learning Japanese. I’d say, “C’mon, I'm in Brazil, ya know, so ... I care about speaking Portuguese, get it?” [laughs]

Brazil languages

Date: October 19, 2016

Location: Gunma, Japan

Interviewer: Shigeru Kojima

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

Interviewee Bio

Antonio Shinkiti Shikota was born on September 12, 1962, in the city of Campinas, São Paulo state, Brazil. His parents were born in Japan. Wanting to start his own business, he followed a friend’s advice and went to Japan. Initially, he worked as a factory worker and ended up liking it so he stayed in the country. Today, he lives in the city of Oizumi and he is the owner of an itinerant Brazilian products store in Japan. The itinerant store is a truck that offers a variety of Brazilian products directed mainly at the Nikkei public. Antonio is very fond of living in Japan and the city of Oizumi. (February 2018)