Japanese Princess Mako Visits Immigration Museum in Brazil

July 23, 2018

Sao Paulo- Japanese Princess Mako, now on an official trip to Brazil, visited a museum for Japanese immigration in Liberdade, a district in central Sao Paulo, on Sunday.

This year marks the 110th anniversary of the arrival of first Japanese immigrants in the South American country.

"I realized that immigrants from Japan settled in so many places in Brazil," Princess Mako, the first child of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko, and the eldest grandchild of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, said, looking at a map showing the settlers' destinations.

The Emperor and the Empress visited the museum in 1978, when they were Crown Prince and Crown Princess, to attend its opening ceremony.

Princess Mako also visited Japan House, an overseas public relations center for the Asian country. The visit gave the princess an opportunity to look back on the history of Japanese immigration and consider the future of the Japanese community in Brazil.

A total of about 1.9 million people of Japanese descent now live in Brazil, more than in any other country outside Japan.

Japan House in Sao Paulo opened in 2017 as the first such facility. Jiji Press