Ninety years ago, a tiny group of eighty-one pioneers from eleven families left everything they knew behind in Japan to carve out a new life in the south-central region of Paraguay. They established La Colmena, braving immense hardships, dense wilderness, and an entirely unfamiliar environment. Today, that small initial footprint has grown into a vibrant community of roughly ten thousand Japanese descendants who continue to shape Paraguayan agriculture, education, and culture.
Japan's Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko arrived in Asunción to mark this exact ninety-year milestone of Japanese immigration to Paraguay. It is Crown Prince Fumihito's first return to the South American nation in twenty years, while Crown Princess Kiko is visiting for the first time. During a massive ceremony near the capital drawing around six hundred and fifty people, including Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, the Crown Prince publicly thanked the Nikkei community for acting as a human bridge between two countries separated by half the globe.
Remembering the Early Struggles
History doesn't always remember the hard days, but the descendants do. The earliest settlers who arrived in 1936 didn't walk into ready-made towns. They faced grueling physical labor, clearing wild forests by hand, dealing with tropical diseases, and figuring out how to farm crops in soil vastly different from home.
President Santiago Peña acknowledged these deep sacrifices during the commemorative events, highlighting how the Japanese community integrated into Paraguay's multicultural identity without losing their industrious spirit. Long-time community members like eighty-seven-year-old Ikuko Matsumiya, who moved from Tochigi prefecture in 1956, noted how much it means to have the imperial family show up for these milestones. Before the main ceremony, the royal couple laid white lilies at a monument dedicated to deceased settlers, offering quiet prayers for those who never lived to see how successful their descendants would become.
Beyond Ceremonies and Diplomacy
Royal visits are heavy on pageantry, but this tour carries concrete diplomatic weight. Bilateral ties between Tokyo and Asunción have evolved into a strategic partnership over decades. Beyond the emotional reunions and speeches, the current itinerary includes practical cooperation elements, such as the commission of the DRM-5 Paraguay dredger, a modern vessel donated by Japan to keep the South American nation's vital riverways navigable and safe.
The royal couple is also traveling by road to La Colmena and visiting other historic Nikkei hubs like Yguazú in Alto Paraná. These stops aren't just photo ops. They allow the imperial family to sit down directly with local farmers, business owners, and community leaders who built modern trade and cultural exchanges from scratch.
If you look at how foreign relations are usually conducted—stuffy rooms, brief handshakes, and signed papers that mean little to ordinary citizens—the Japan-Paraguay bond looks entirely different. It's built on ninety years of shared sweat, community building, and mutual respect on the ground.
