By Kai Nishino,
Colonia Pinhal is a small village in Brazil with a proud history and immigrant identity with its roots tracing back to Fukui Prefecture in central Japan.
Situated about 170 kilometers southwest of central Sao Paulo, the village celebrates the 60th anniversary of its opening this year. Fourteen people in three families from Fukui first settled there in the 1960s and Colonia Pinhal, also known as Fukui Village, now has a population of about 1,000, including immigrants from other areas of Japan.
Aiko Taniguchi, a 39-year-old employee of the Fukui prefectural government, spent two years as a Japanese language teacher in the community and attended the ceremony in August to commemorate the landmark year. She simply hopes to make people aware of the village.
"For the villagers, their connection with Fukui is a strong part of their identity," Taniguchi said in a recent interview. "I would like more people to know of Colonia Pinhal's existence."
Colonia Pinhal is a farming village that cultivates grapes, persimmons and various other fruits. Its foundation was built as part of the Japanese government's efforts to promote emigration to Brazil.
Beginning in the 19th century, the Japanese government promoted overseas emigration as a measure to combat recession and population growth. The first ship to reach Brazil was the Kasato Maru containing 781 passengers, which arrived at the port of Santos in 1908.
After the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which struck Tokyo and its vicinities and killed an estimated 105,000 people, the government started subsidizing travel to Brazil as a temporary measure, and the number of emigrants increased rapidly.
Taniguchi's desire to teach abroad was strengthened when she met children of the Japanese diaspora during her college days in Aichi Prefecture, where she majored in Japanese language education.
When she was 25 and working in Fukui, Taniguchi learned about Fukui Village through a volunteer recruitment notice sent by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. She lived in the village and taught Japanese from 2010 to 2012.
Villagers there were surrounded by items and memorabilia that strengthened their connection to the prefecture and their sense of being "Fukui people" -- such as pictures of the prefectural governor and Fukui tourism posters adorning the walls. It made Taniguchi, a native of Fukui herself, feel right at home.
Taniguchi ate with her students' families and got a close-up look at the children's daily lives, including watching them help with chores on the farm. "The whole village was raising children, and I realized that education isn't something that only happens in classrooms."
After returning to Japan, she accompanied the village's "taiko" drumming club to a competition in Japan and invited them to her parents' restaurant in Fukui Prefecture. Her sense that "improving society will change education," which she got from her time in the village, drove her to become a Fukui prefectural official in 2016.
Since May this year, she has been working in the local government's international economic division, accepting people with Japanese roots from South American countries, or Nikkeijin, as technical trainees, as well as conducting an art exchange program with Fukui Village.
Taniguchi's visit to join the celebrations marking the village's 60th anniversary this past summer was her first in 11 years, and she was struck by the availability of internet access, which she thought was a positive as it meant there are more ways for people to communicate across communities.
"In the future, there will be more ways for people from the village to interact with people from the prefecture. Someday, we hope more teachers from here can have the experience of going over to Brazil to teach in Fukui Village," she said.
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