Kunio Sakamoto
Born in Kanagawa Prefecture. In 1932, at the age of three, he was sent to work on a coffee plantation in the state of São Paulo, Brazil with his family. Within a year, his father, Rihei, died, and his mother, Teru, remarried Sakai Kotaro, who had also lost his previous wife, and in 1935, the family moved to Paraguay. In 1936, they were among the first to settle in the La Colmena settlement.
He qualified as a certified public accountant in 1954. He served as Executive Director of the La Colmena Agricultural Cooperative (1955-56). He was involved in migration-related projects while working in Asuncion for the Japan Overseas Emigration Promotion Company (1957-62), the Japan Overseas Emigration Agency (1962-69), and the Itapua Oil Company CAICISA (1969-73). From 1974 to 1992, he served as the Asuncion liaison officer for Sumitomo Corporation.
He qualified as a certified translator in 1959. Since then, he has translated various laws, regulations, and books, including "EL invierno de Guntar" (written by Juan Manuel Marcos, published by Yukodo in 2016). He is currently taking on the challenge of "super-translating" "Yo el supremo" (1987), the Cervantes Literature Prize-winning work by the late Augusto Roa Bastos, a great Paraguayan writer, and is enjoying the "life of an appendix."
(Updated November 2019)
Stories from This Author
The evil hand closing in on the huge Japanese settlement of Yguazu - The secret activities of "landless farmers"
Nov. 27, 2019 • Kunio Sakamoto
It was a shocking story that made me say, "Not again!" The National Institute of Rural Land Development (INDERT) has once again brought up the issue of "surplus state land," which arose in 2005 and is assumed to still exist in the Japanese settlement of Iguazu in Paraguay. This accusation is simmering from time to time in the municipality of Juan Leon Mallorquín, which is adjacent to the western part of the settlement. It is none other than the INDERT …
