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A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 7 January 2019

Iconic Japanese newspaper in Brazil closes after 72 years

By VICTOR CAIVANO ficult.” Brazil’s first Japa-
Associated Press nese migrants arrived in the
SAO PAULO (AP) — The Sao port of Santos aboard the
Paulo Shimbun newspaper steamship Kasato Maru on
has printed its final edition, June 18, 1908, spurring a
ending a 72-year run as a wave of immigration that
vital reference point and grew to about 2 million
voice for Brazil’s Japanese people. They introduced
community - the largest in foods that changed Bra-
the world outside of Japan. zilian cuisine and farming
The Japanese-language techniques that helped
newspaper, whose final turn Latin America’s big-
edition rolled off the press- gest country into an agri-
es Jan. 1, was a victim of cultural superpower.
declining sales, an aging The arrival of the first immi-
readership and the inter- grants was the result of ne-
net. Its owner, Helena Mizu- gotiations between Japan
moto, said an online ver- and Sao Paulo state, where
sion may be launched in most Japanese-Brazilians
the future. still live. Japan needed
Sao Paulo Shimbun was an escape valve for poor
founded in 1946, shortly af- farmers, who were left out
ter the end of World War II. of the country’s rapid mod-
Mizumoto said that before In this Dec. 21, 2018 photo, the Sao Paulo Shimbun Japanese newspaper is printed in Sao Paulo, ernization beginning in the
the internet and cable tele- Brazil. late 1800s. Meanwhile,
vision, immigrants would Associated Press Sao Paulo coffee growers
call the newspaper to find served as the main refer- channel,” said Eduardo articles got worse.” needed more workers to
out where they could find ence point for Japanese Nakashima, secretary gen- Kanomata spoke in the tend to their coffee planta-
Japanese-owned business. living in the South Ameri- eral of the Brazil-Japan Cul- main square of Liberdade tions.
“The Google of the com- can country. While mainly tural Alliance. where he goes every morn- Like many immigrant
munity was here,” Mizu- in Japanese, it printed a In Liberdade, Nobukazu ing at 6 a.m. to practice groups, the early settlers
moto said, adding that the few pages in Portuguese as Kanomata, an 83-year-old radio taiso exercises with planned to return home in
newspaper was instrumen- well. massage therapist who other elderly Japanese im- two to five years and start
tal in letting expats know Japanese expats got most was born in Japan and migrants. new lives with their earn-
that Japan had lost the of their national and inter- came to Brazil after the Businessman Yoshikatsu ings. But they quickly real-
war. national information from war, said the newspaper Yamashita said he only ized they would never save
For decades Sao Paulo the Sao Paulo Shimbun closed “because there are read the part of the news- enough for a return ticket.
Shimbun, from its offices in up until the 1990s, but that fewer people in the com- paper printed in Portu- Many eventually migrated
Sao Paulo’s Asian neigh- “ended with internet and munity able to read Japa- guese “because the part to urban centers or to other
borhood of Liberdade, the NHK Japanese news nese and the quality of its in Japanese was a bit dif- rural areas.q

Venezuela’s congress names new leader, vows to battle Maduro

By SCOTT SMITH gineer and former student Japan, Italy and Germany
Associated Press leader from the same po- attended the assembly’s
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) litical party as Leopoldo inaugural session in a show
— Venezuela’s opposi- Lopez, Venezuela’s most of solidarity.
tion-controlled congress popular opposition leader “The National Assembly
opened its first session of under house arrest. Gov- should inspire hope in the
the year Saturday, install- ernment opponents con- Venezuelan people for a
ing a fresh-faced leader sider him a political prison- peaceful, prosperous, and
who struck a defiant tone er. Guaido called Maduro democratic future, even
and vowed to take up the a dictator whose legitima- as the corrupt and authori-
battle against socialist Pres- cy has run out. Venezuela is tarian Maduro regime and
ident Nicolas Maduro. living a “dark but transition- its allies seek to deny Ven-
Juan Guaido, 35, assumes al” moment of its history, he ezuelans that right,” the
the presidency of a Na- said, adding that among its State Department said in a
tional Assembly stripped of first acts congress will cre- statement. It added: “Ev-
power by Maduro, whose ate a transitional body to ery nation must take strong
government is blamed for restore constitutional order, action to help the Venezu-
leading the once-wealthy Venezuelan lawmaker Juan Guaido swears in as President of but he offered no details. elan people reclaim their
oil nation into a historic po- the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. He addressed a hall filled democracy.”
litical and humanitarian cri- 5, 2019. only with opposition law- The assembly opened days
sis. Speaking to legislators, Associated Press makers as the government before Maduro’s inaugura-
Guaido named off several citizens to flee abroad look- represents the next genera- loyalists have long boycot- tion to a second, six-year
opposition politicians and ing for work. tion of Venezuelan political ted any sessions, saying the term widely condemned
opponents of Maduro’s “We are under an oppres- opposition, taking up the National Assembly has itself as illegitimate after he de-
government who have sive system,” he said. “It’s assembly’s leadership fol- overstepped its authority. clared victory in the May
been jailed, driven into ex- not just that — it is miser- lowing 74-year-old Omar However, roughly 20 for- 20 election that many for-
ile or killed. He said desper- able.” Barboza. eign diplomats from the eign powers considered a
ation has forced masses of Tall and youthful, Guaido Guaido is an industrial en- United States, Canada, sham.q