The father of Kagawa Prefecture's overseas immigrants: Shinichi Imayuki's passion and achievements
Known as the father of overseas immigration in Kagawa Prefecture, Shinichi Imayuki was a teacher at Kagawa Prefectural Agricultural and Forestry School, and sent many of his students and other residents of the prefecture overseas from before the war to after the war. His influence on Kagawa's immigrants to South America is so great that there is no Kagawa resident of the older generation who emigrated to South America who does not know about Imayuki. In 1954, he visited four South American countries for about a year, visiting and speaking to 899 families who had emigrated. Based on his experiences there, he decided to emigrate to Brazil himself in 1961, where he spent the rest of his life. In this series, we will introduce Imayuki's visit to South America and his thoughts on overseas immigration in three parts.
Stories from this series
Part 3: Governor Masanori Kaneko's visit to South America and his key findings
June 7, 2021 • Alberto J. Matsumoto
Governor Kaneko, a former judge, served as the governor of Kagawa Prefecture for six terms, a total of 24 years, from 1950. He was also one of the key figures in spreading the prefecture's specialty, "Sanuki udon," throughout the country. During his term in office in 1956, he was invited by the U.S. Department of State to participate in a leadership exchange program, staying in the United States for three months, and then visiting four South American countries (Brazil, Paraguay, …
Part 2: My thoughts on "emigrated abroad"
May 31, 2021 • Alberto J. Matsumoto
Professor Imayuki calmly analyzes the issues he sees and hears about in the field and has written down his own theories and mindset regarding "moving overseas," so I would like to introduce some of these to you. The education problem in the interior of Brazil and Paraguay is serious, with many elementary school students failing or dropping out. However, the relaxed half-day class system and the acceptance of teachers having second jobs are better than Japan's cramming classes. Japanese language …
Part 1: Passion for moving abroad
May 24, 2021 • Alberto J. Matsumoto
Modern Japanese overseas immigration began with 153 Japanese who arrived in Hawaii in 1868, as a result of an agreement between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Kingdom of Hawaii. The Meiji government's new nation-building was a very ambitious endeavor, and it also focused on trade and industrial development. However, unfavorable treaties concluded before that created major obstacles to trade, for example, so no matter how much raw silk (silkworm industry) was exported, it could not be traded at a high …
