It is said that three Japanese people meet and an association is formed. Such is the need to group together to achieve a common objective in the search for benefits that benefit the group and its subsequent significance towards a community.

This associative form is deeply embedded in the soul of the Japanese with the motto “two heads are worth more than one” and the value of working as a team and achieving balance between everyone.

Group work can be compared to a baseball or football team where the pitcher or team captain manages the group with skill and responsibility so that each one does their due work of attack or defense of the team in a concatenated manner and is the group that achieves the desired objective or success.

In this sense, since the beginning of Japanese immigration to the Americas, perhaps one of the first groups they formed was sports around baseball or yakyu teams as a way of training the body, the discipline that its inclusion implies, fun and, above all, the sense of belonging to a group.

As an example of this associativity, in the early days of the colony, La Colmena, in Paraguay, with a population of an average of 800 Japanese, was divided into five neighborhoods in a total area of ​​11,000. Each of these groups has given a name chosen by consensus. The one in the urban area was called “Tacuara”, the others took the name “Asahi”, “Arawashi”, “Condor” and “All Nipón.” From there, the team formed that was for baseball made its uniform with its name and its respective number. Baseball games were true celebrations of camaraderie, fair competition and challenges. On the day of the tournament, each team presented itself with its fans with their respective songs with banners and flags that added to the cheering shouts of gambare .

This type of tournament continues to be popular in all the colonies with the adult team and the shonen yakyu , for the teenagers. The latter participate in international tournaments in South America and Japan. Many other support entities were also formed around sport.

One of the main promoters of associations in Paraguay was Hisakazu Kasamatsu, who first created the youth sports group for the Japanese adolescents and young people of La Colmena for those who lived overwhelmed by the work of the settlement without having an expansion towards enjoying life. as young people. In the seventies, the Japanese Association of Asunción and the Federation of Japanese Associations of Paraguay (1972) were founded on his initiative, when similar associations were created in all the Japanese colonies. At the same time, the Japanese Ladies Association, a funjinkai, was created, while the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry was created in 1969.

In 1991 he founded the Association of Japanese Elders of Asunción and this quickly expanded throughout the neighborhoods to achieve a dignified and recreational expansion for the elderly Japanese of Paraguay. In this way, the Federation of Japanese Elders of Paraguay was created. According to his assessments, he wanted to leave a care and recreation center for the elderly Japanese and Japanese society and with the financing of the Jinnai Foundation and the contribution of the Japanese colonies he built the building of the Japanese Charity Social Center of Paraguay, on whose property The Nikkei Clinic, the recreational area, salons and boarding house also operate and the Board of Directors is made up of the main Japanese and Nikkei leaders in the country.

When the Gate Ball sport brought by Senshi Narimatsu arrived in Paraguay, Kasamatsu realized the importance of practicing this sport for the elderly, in a small available space and outdoor exercise, very effective for physical health. and mental, the Gate Ball Association was created in each of the colonies and therefore organized the Gate Ball Federation of Paraguay, which gave an unusual highlight in the different national and international competitions, the Paraguayan Japanese team was made up of children, young people , women, men and the elderly, whose participation in number was the largest in Paraguay in regards to sports. About 1,500 people attended the South American international tournament organized during his presidency in 1995 and it was held in the Japanese Yguazu Colony.

Kasamatsu was not the only leader of the Japanese community in Paraguay, many other prominent leaders in the Nikkei and Japanese community emerged over time and created entities such as the Paraguayan Nikkei Center (1987), which is a model of expansion and organization. of the Paraguayan Nisei with a magnificent headquarters in the city of Ytaugua, through the effort that the successive leaders have put into achieving the success achieved.

Another such as the Central Cooperative Nikkei Agricultural Ltd. with the presidency of Yoshihiko Koda highlights the importance of the strength and value of the Japanese in group work, in terms of unity and mutual support in the supply of materials, seeds and equipment , the production, marketing and export of agricultural products. It brings together five cooperatives from the Japanese colonies and is considered a successful organizational model in the country.

Within a social and economic crisis that increasingly widens the existing gaps between the rich and the poor, in which 10% of the Paraguayan population monopolizes 80% of the country's wealth, the Japanese community in Paraguay is alien to this crisis due to the degree of association between them and the solidarity that is strongly linked among the associates and, whose decisions are made prudently, in consensus, respecting the hierarchies of their positions.

The sense of group embedded in the soul of the Japanese continues to persist among their descendants as a hallmark of the value of teamwork that clearly contrasts with the values ​​of Western individualism.

© 2007 Emi Kasamatsu