Isao Taoka

(b. 1943) Paraguayan Ambassador to Japan

Leading up to the Inauguration as the Nikkei Ambassador of Paraguay: The Joyful Moment (Japanese) The Current Conditions of Dekasegi from Paraguay (Japanese) Views on Japanese Youth (Japanese) Carrying on the Legacy in the Colony of Paraguay (Japanese) The Changes in Youth in the Colony (Japanese) The Grand Duty left to the Issei (Japanese)

Transcripts available in the following languages:

Isao Taoka was born in 1943 in the Miyoshi District of Tokushima Prefecture. At the age of 14, he immigrated to the La Paz Colony in Paraguay. While engaging in agriculture, Mr. Taoka took on several community positions such as the chair of the Cooperativa La Paz Agrícola (Agriculture Union of La Paz), the chairman of the Central Cooperativa Nikkei del Paraguay (Central Nikkei Agriculture Union in Paraguay), and the supervisor as well as the director for the Federación de Cooperativa de Producción del Paraguay (Agriculture Union Federation of Paraguay). In 1987, he received the third class of the Paraguay Merit of Service Award. Between 1992 and 1996, and again from 2002 to 2003, Mr. Taoka served as the mayor of La Paz. In 2004, he became the first immigrant born in Japan to be inaugurated as an ambassador to Japan. Mr. Taoka served this position until October of 2009. (December 2009)

ambassador Paraguay dekasegi nikkei in japan community identity Japan youth education migration colonia issei