When the Great East Japan Earthquake struck last March 11, foreign businessmen such as Brazilian Shinji Mogi and Bangladeshi Akter Hossain refused to sit idly by and do nothing.
When the Great East Japan Earthquake struck last March 11, foreign businessmen such as Brazilian Shinji Mogi and Bangladeshi Akter Hossain refused to sit idly by and do nothing.
After fueling up, Mogi, the 47-year-old president of a wrecking company in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, drove to Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 18, bringing his favorite excavator decorated with a Brazilian national flag.
Meanwhile, Hossain, 45, head of two resort hotels and restaurants in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, opened his facilities to nearly 500 evacuees.
William Swing, director-general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that the roles of these migrant leaders, who are a bridge between the migrant groups and host society, only increase during a major disaster.
“Just as support from people around the world, migrants living in Japan have given strong encouragement for Japanese people by assuring that Japanese people are not isolated facing the humanitarian crisis,” said Swing in a recent interview, who visited Japan in early March.
Mogi said he felt compelled to “demonstrate that we, Brazilians, are fully committed members of society.” In his two decades in Japan, he was often frustrated, feeling that the general public only pays attention to the Brazilian community when there’s bad news, such as crime and unemployment, he added.
But what Mogi saw in Natori was far beyond anything he could have imagined. Residents kept asking him to try to rescue family members trapped under debris. He did his best, but all he found were more than a dozen bodies.
Still determined to help, he returned to coastal Tohoku towns each month throughout the year, bringing excavators, food and other supplies donated by the Brazilian community, including more than 500 bicycles and heated carpets.
The visits became a bit festive as time went on, with participants bringing an upbeat Brazilian attitude and Brazilian-style barbecue. When he revisited Natori in October, Mogi, using his Brazilian network, brought soccer legend Pele, who was in Japan to promote the 2014 World Cup.
The trips also gave the team members a sense of pride and solidarity, leading to the formation of the volunteer group Brasil Solidario in April. In addition to the group’s relief efforts, it also aspires to combat common problems facing Brazilians in Japan.
“I’d never heard such truly sincere ‘thank-yous’ as those offered by the people in Tohoku,” Mogi said. “The words really dissolved the psychological barrier that we often feel living in Japan.”
For Hossain, his business was already in trouble before the March 11 disasters. The global financial crisis and the strong yen had halved the number of guests at his hotels and restaurants.
The quake and Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant accident were yet another heavy blow. Because of public fears of radiation contamination in Nikko, the number of visitors to the area plunged.
It was during this business crisis that Hossain, who heads the Asian Garden group, opened his hotels to 400 evacuees from Tohoku, mainly foreign students and residents from the areas around Sendai, and then for 70 people from the evacuation zone around the Fukushima power plant.
Thanks to the three-star service and care provided by the hotel staff and volunteers, the evacuees, from minors to those in their 90s and ill, were comfortable, certainly more so than might be expected at the usual temporarily shelter. The last group of evacuees left for temporary housing in December.
Hossain, who came to Japan as a student in 1986, said business “always has ups and downs. It’s just like life.” But the downward trend for tourism in Nikko this time will take years to recover, he said.
His focus is on Bangladesh now, as he is building apparel and water bottling factories in the country. But he said he will never close his hotels and restaurants in Nikko.
“As a businessman, this is how I want to encourage people in Nikko,” Hossain said.