Asociación Peruano Japonesa
@APJThe Japanese Peruvian Association (Asociación Peruano Japonesa, APJ) is a nonprofit organization that brings together and represents Japanese citizens who live in Peru and their descendants, as well as their institutions.
Updated May 2009
Stories from This Author
The Nikkei identity under the analysis of Daniel Saucedo Segami, archaeologist and immigration researcher
Nov. 15, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
At school, Daniel Saucedo Segami noticed that there were things that differentiated him from his classmates. Certain words, for example. “I once said 'bakatare' (fool) to a friend who had done something wrong. He looked at me and said 'what is that?'” Or I talked to them about butsudan and they didn't understand it. Spurred by these differences, from a very young age Daniel became interested in his Japanese origins and, in particular, in the history of his immigrant great-grandparents …
Carlos Runcie Tanaka: a necessary return to the profession
Oct. 6, 2017 • Carina Moreno , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Carlos Runcie Tanaka says that he prefers to mold clay to say the things that happen to him as a human being. However, despite denying it, he is able to express himself with words, almost as if he were reciting. His words have a cadence and there are silences that speak to us of a reflective being, but also of a man with an inner volcano that is his own existence, the product of the meeting of two family trunks …
Anthony Aoki, promise of Peruvian football
Sept. 18, 2017 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
If soccer is the corner of optimism for Peruvians, the national team is its maximum expression. In this enthusiastic scenario, every young footballer knows a mysterious word: promise. Anthony Tadashi Aoki Nakama is 17 years old and was captain of the under 17 team that played in the South American this year, a young man who has seen his life change because of the sport that moves the masses and in which he hopes to forge a profession. Tadashi, who …
Discovering the Shimabukuro
Aug. 7, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
In 1956, at the age of 56, Seitoku Shimabukuro, overwhelmed by debt, decided to migrate to the Peruvian Amazon to save himself from shipwreck. The once successful businessman, owner of a school, one of the most influential people in the Japanese colony in Callao (Lima), goes into the jungle for five years. Alone, far from his wife and six children, he leads a life rich in adventures that is captured in the book Memories of the Amazon. Its author is …
Sofía Pichihua, Cardcaptor Sakura collector and Guinness Record
July 5, 2017 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Sofía Pichihua is not just any otaku. This manga fan, who began following the anime that aired on television back in 2000, has become the biggest collector of Cardcaptor Sakura , the manga by CLAMP, a female quartet of Japanese cartoonists who gave life to Sakura Kinomoto, a girl who discovers that she has magical powers after releasing a set of cards found in a book. Sofia says that since she was a girl she watched anime through the open …
Partying, music and Nisei youth in the 1960s and 1970s
June 7, 2017 • Milagros Tsukayama Shinzato , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
A regular Nikkei crowd filled the dance halls every week. Witness to this are the Majestic Hall, the Kaseijo Gakko by Sáenz Peña in La Victoria or the Chinese Beneficence. Every week there were parties in the Japanese colony in Lima. To give greater excitement, the place was decorated according to the occasion. If the party was called “The Grotto”, everything was decorated as if it were a grotto. If it was “Aquarium”, it was decorated as such, even with …
Beto Shiroma, lifelong musician. More than 25 years dribbling
May 10, 2017 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Beto Shiroma shakes his hand tightly. He seems to be full of energy, as if the day had just begun, although night has almost fallen when the interview takes place and he has easily had a hectic day, like every time he arrives in Peru. It's paradoxical: he has a busy schedule in Peru, he goes from here to there, they call him from everywhere, so in theory he should be tired; However, it is as if the hustle injects …
Economist Marco Carrasco: “I have always been fascinated by Japanese culture”
April 3, 2017 • Harumi Nako Fuentes , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Marco Carrasco Villanueva has made news in Peru. The publication on the website of his alma mater, the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, about the first place obtained in a master's degree at the Sorbonne University in Paris, put all the spotlights on this young Peruvian student who, beyond his achievements academics and his professional work, he is also passionate about Japan and its culture. “I have always been fascinated by Asia and especially Japanese culture, that interesting mix …
Nikkei New Year: A History of Oshogatsu Since the Time of the Issei
Jan. 11, 2017 • Milagros Tsukayama Shinzato , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
I spent almost all of my childhood with my grandmother. Her customs, which were of course very Japanese, were reflected in her daily life. She didn't celebrate Christmas, but she did celebrate Oshogatsu (New Year in Japanese). In those days, I remember that preparations for Oshogatsu began on December 31. Starting at dawn, we cleaned the house, while my mother cooked. She spent the entire morning cooking tofu, a pork dish with turnips and carrots, kombu knots, plenty of sushi …
From Torakichi Yamazaki to Jorge Ávila, a family saga
Dec. 1, 2016 • Enrique Higa Sakuda , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Clotilde Yamasaki never knew her father's real name. He only remembered that his countrymen, Japanese immigrants like him, called him “Torak.” In Peru he was baptized as José. One of the few things she knew about her father, a silent and reserved man, was that he had arrived in Peru accompanied by an uncle on the Sakura Maru , the ship that brought the first Japanese immigrants to the country on April 3, 1899. . The mystery would be solved …
