Harry Honda was a native Angeleño, born in 1919, and graduated from Maryknoll School in 1932. Harry's long career in Nikkei journalism began in 1936 with the Rafu Shimpo in Los Angles and a year at Nichibei Shimbun in San Francisco. He served in the Army during World War II all stateside, graduated in political science from Loyola University in 1950, then edited the Pacific Citizen, JACL's weekly publication, for 50 years, retiring in 2002. He passed away in July 2013 at age 93.

Updated July 2013

Kotaro Horisaka is a Professor at Sophia University in Tokyo where he is part of the Foreign Studies department faculty, as well as the President of the Iberoamerican Institute. He is a graduate of International Christian University. He specializes in Latin American Studies, particularly political economy. Before he became a professor at Sophia University, Kotaro served as a journalist in the Stock Division at Nihon Keizai Shinbun (Nikkei Shinbun), a research assistant at the International Development Center of Japan, a journalist for the Industry Division and Foreign News Division at Nikkei Shinbun, and a foreign correspondent in Central and South America for 4 years where he conducted fieldwork and covered the news in Latin American countries, particularly in Brazil. He also analyzed the tendencies of the regional integrity of the American Continent, focusing on the MERCOSUL (Southern Common Market), industries and enterprises in Latin America, and Brazilian politics and economy.

Updated November 2007

Lili Kawamura has a doctorate in Sociology (University of São Paulo), Free-Docent in Education (UNICAMP – State University at Campinas, SP), Professor and Researcher at UNICAMP-FE (since 1987); Visiting Professor at the Masters Program of the University of Tsukuba in Japan (1997-2000); Visiting Professor at the University of Tenri in Japan (1994); Collaborating Professor at the University of Foreign Studies in Kyoto (1994) and Researcher at the University of Nagoya (1993-1994). She has published books and articles about Brazilian immigration to Japan, including “Where Are the Brazilians Going?” published by Unicamp, 2nd edition in 2003, and “Japanese Society and Brazilian Immigrants” (in Japanese), published by Akashi Shoten, Tokyo, 2000, in addition to articles in Brazilian and Japanese magazines.

Updated September 20, 2008

Akemi Kikumura Yano is a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Los Angeles, Asian American Studies Center.  She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA and is an award-winning author, curator, and playwright, best known for her book Through Harsh Winters:  The Life of an Immigrant Woman.

Updated February 2012

Mary Maruyama is a foreign affairs student at the Faculdades Integradas Rio Branco. She is also a contributor to Associação Brasileira de Estudos Japoneses – ABEJ (Brazilian Association of Japanese Studies).

Updated December 11, 2007

Célia Abe Oi is a journalist and historian. She has worked for periodicals with ties to the Nikkei community, was editor-in-chief of the Portuguese-language section of the Diário Nippak newspaper, and contributed to other newspapers as well. She has edited various publications, among them the Guide to Japanese Culture and the books Baseball – Stories of a Passion and Piratininga, 50 Years – A History of the Nisei Generation. Between 1998 and 2007, she was the executive director of the Museum of the History of Japanese Immigration to Brazil, and in 2008 worked in various projects for the centennial and was one of the curators of the exhibition Japan in Each One of Us.

Updated November 2008

Célia Sakurai is a researcher on the history of Japanese immigration in Brazil. She is the author of Romanceiro da Imigração Japonesa (Collection of Stories About Japanese Immigration) (1993), Imigração e Política (Immigration and Politics) (1995), “Imigração Tutelada. Os japoneses no Brasil (Overseen Immigration. The Japanese in Brazil)” (2000 – doctoral thesis at Unicamp [University of Campinas, São Paulo State]), Os Japoneses (The Japanese) (2007), in addition to several articles, and “Two Scenes, One Wall?” – winning story in the 2013 Bunkyo Story Contest, which was published on Discover Nikkei on November 11, 2013.

Updated June 2017

Ariel Takeda is a professor with a degree in Education. A Nisei, Takeda was born and raised in southern Chile. For six years, he has been director and writer of the newsletter “Nikkei Informative” for the Japanese Beneficence Society. In 2002, he was the primary author of the chapter on Japanese migration in the Encyclopedia of Japanese Descendants in the Americas: An Illustrated History of the Nikkei (AltaMira Press). In 2006, Takeda published the book, Anecdotario histórico: Japoneses Chilenos (primera mitad del siglo XX). He continues to research and write about Japanese culture. He is currently working on “Nikkei Chilenos – Segunda Mitad del Siglo XX” and the novel “El Nikkei – A la Sombra del Samurai.”

Updated November 2012

Alexandre Uehara is the vice president of the Associação Brasileira de Estudos Japoneses – ABEJ (Brazilian Association of Japanese Studies). He has a Ph.D. in Political Science, and is a professor of foreign affairs and a specialist in Japanese foreign relations. He’s the author of the book Japanese Foreign Affairs at the End of the 20th Century.

Updated April 8, 2009

Paulo Yokota is an economist from Brazil. He is a former professor in the School of Economics at Sao Paulo University. He has held many prestigious government positions in the past including Director of the Central Bank of Brazil, President of the National Institute for Land Administration and Settlement Projects, and member of the Advisory Committee on Technical Service (World Churches Council, Geneve, Switzerland). He has also served as the representative of the Brazilian Government at the EXPO TSUKUBA 85 in Japan, was invited by the State Department to participate in a special program to visit the United States, and received a scholarship from JICA to visit Japan. He currently serves as President of the Brazilian and Japanese Philanthropic Society and Vice President of the Association of Centenary of Japanese Immigration to Brazil.

Updated December 5, 2007