Inspire Forward: Nikkei Heroes Under 30
This monthly series features interviews with young Nikkei who are 30 years old and younger from around the world who are helping to shape and build the future of Nikkei communities or doing innovative and creative work sharing and exploring Nikkei history, culture, and identity.
Logo design by Alison Skilbred
Stories from this series
Karen Tengan Okuda: Exploring and Expressing Her Uchinānchu / Okinawan Identity
Oct. 17, 2022 • Karen Kawaguchi
As a second-generation Uchinānchu (Okinawan immigrant), Karen Tengan Okuda lives and works on the unceded lands of the Eora and Dharug peoples (Sydney, Australia). Okuda works as a Social Media Community Specialist for Special Broadcasting Service Australia. She is also a founding member and an editor of a magazine, Shimanchu Nu Kwii (meaning “voices of Shimanchu” in Uchināguchi). “The magazine was born out of a desire to create a space where Shimanchu (island people) all over the world can connect with …
Politics, Taiko, and Nikkei Activism with Kota Mizutani
Sept. 30, 2022 • Kimiko Medlock
Introduction Kota Mizutani grew up in rural Sonoma County, California, where he gradually became aware of Japanese American traditions that surrounded him as a child; teriyaki festivals, obons, taiko performances. He began playing taiko himself at the age of six, he told Discover Nikkei in a recent interview, and it was history and community surrounding Japanese drumming that grounded him in his Nikkei identity. These days, he is 26 years old and continues playing with Mark H Taiko in the …
Douglas Mitsuyuki Ito is the Creator of a Network that Connects Young Nikkei from All Over Brazil
Aug. 30, 2022 • Tatiana Maebuchi
On the paternal side, his great-grandfather’s parents came from the Hokkaido Prefecture and his great-grandmother’s from Gunma. On his mother’s side, his great-grandfather’s parents were from Miyagi and his great-grandmother’s from Yamaguchi and Hiroshima. These are the family origins of the 25-year-old Yonsei Douglas Mitsuyuki Ito, who holds a degree in Information Technology Management. Family culture “I feel that up until my grandparents’ generation there was a very strong Japanese cultural presence, with the practice of Buddhism and old customs, …
Vini Taguchi, A Civil Engineer for Social Justice—Part 2
July 28, 2022 • Esther Newman
Read Part 1 >> Joining the JACL The Kakehashi program was Vini’s first experience where all the participants were Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. “I immediately discovered that I felt more at home in this community than I ever had with my Japanese friends because suddenly I was in a diverse group of Americans with varying racial identities and Japanese language abilities where my background was still unique but not so ‘different’ as it normally was.” “After the Kakehashi trip,” wrote …
Vini Taguchi: A Civil Engineer for Social Justice—Part 1
July 27, 2022 • Esther Newman
Vinicius “Vini” Taguchi personifies the cross cultural, interconnected reach of today’s Nikkei community. His outlook is as broad as his background while his occupation and vocation focus on social justice. He’s both issei and gosei (a first generation immigrant more culturally aligned with 4th and 5th generation Japanese Americans), Brazilian and American, a civil engineer and a community activist. And, like the others in this series of Inspire Forward: Nikkei Heroes Under 30, he’s just getting started. Family Background Vini …
Documentary Photographer and Journalist Kayla Isomura Explores Nikkei Culture and Identity
June 27, 2022 • Karen Kawaguchi
Kayla Isomura may be best known for their work on The Suitcase Project (2018), a multimedia exhibition which explored themes of home, sudden dislocation, and discrimination experienced by fourth- and fifth-generation Japanese Canadians and Americans. As a fourth-generation Japanese and Chinese Canadian storyteller, artist, documentary photographer, and journalist, Isomura (them/they) has delved into creative projects and community work to explore Nikkei culture and identity. The Suitcase Project To create this project, Isomura asked fourth- and fifth-generation Japanese Canadians and Japanese Americans …