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)

Antonio Shinkiti Shikota

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

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

(Portuguese)

So this crisis for me was a good thing. Why? Because ... It's ... The crisis began exactly in 2008, 2009, right? That’s when the number of people began dwindling in the area of Sendai, Fuku ... Fukushima, because of the crisis. I had big companies there, in that region, that ... that ... that had a lot of Brazilians [living there], so with this crisis ... I stopped handling this region because it just wasn’t worth it – me traveling for kilometers and kilometers to Sendai, Fukushima. So, I stopped handling [these regions where there were fewer and fewer Brazilians] and … [He’s implying that he stopped doing business in that part of the country before the devastating March 2011 Tohoku earthquake]

business economics management

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)