They arrived almost with what they were wearing to a distant and unknown country to them.
And their beginnings were so hard that they soon understood that the best way to thrive in it was mutual support.
It is the story of the first Japanese migrants who landed in Peru at the beginning of the last century.
With them also came the “Tanomoshi”, a particular solidarity investment system originating in Japan that allowed them to support each other.
Professor Alberto Tokeshi, from the University of Lima, tells BBC Mundo that it was “an institutional version of the Western saying that union is strength”, which allowed them to face common problems that they encountered as migrants and “at dessert became the key tool for the growth of the Japanese community in Peru”.
Today the “Nikkei” community, the Japanese immigrants and their descendants, are an essential part of Peru and the “Tanomoshi” is still present, although it has little to do with the original system without which perhaps many of those migrants would not have been able to make their life come true. Peruvian dream.
What is “Tanomoshi” and how did it arrive in Peru?
The term “Tanomoshi” comes from the root “tanomu”, which in Spanish means “to ask for help”, and refers to a system that seeks mutual aid for the benefit of all participants and is based on the economic contribution of all of them. .
Originally, each person periodically contributed an amount of money within their means and the accumulated amount was delivered to an organizer, who was always someone known and trusted by all of them, who with that money faced some contingency.
After that first time, and with the agreed frequency, it was decided at the expiration of each established period who would be the recipient of the aid this time. “Almost always, it was decided based on who was in a situation of greater urgency or need,” explains Tokeshi.
The idea was that all the participants in the “Tanomoshi” would receive at least once the entire fund and thus be able to benefit from the help of their emigrated compatriots.
The origins of this practice are rooted in the history of Japan.
Carlos Saito, author of the book “Kimochi”, dedicated to “Nikkei” customs and traditions in Peru, told BBC Mundo that “Tanomoshi is a custom that was established in Japan as early as the 12th century.”
According to the studies of Professor Tokeshi, it was a group of young immigrants from Okinawa who arrived at the port of El Callao in 1906 aboard the ship Itsukushima Maru who brought the “Tanomoshi” to Peru, which in the insular region of Okinawa it was known as “”Moai”.
Tokeshi affirms that these 36 young people “were the vanguard of the segment that over the years would be the majority of the Japanese community.”
“In their culture, the value of the word was very important and for them the mere fact of participating in the meetings of the Tanomoshi made them subjects of trust.”
How important was the “Tanomoshi”
To understand the importance of “Tanomoshi” it is necessary to understand the circumstances of the emigration from Japan to Peru that took place in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th.
The triumph in 1868 of the Meiji Restoration in the Asian country put an end to the current feudal economic system and led to the abandonment of the agricultural activities that had been the basis of the economy until then, which left many peasants without work and pushed them to poverty.
At that time, in Peru there was a great demand for labor for the cotton and sugar farms of an expanding agricultural sector.
In 1898 the governments of both countries signed an agreement to facilitate the arrival of Japanese workers to the South American country. Encouraged by promises from the Morioka Immigration Company, which chartered the ships, many Japanese sailed for Peru hoping to work, amass a little capital, and return home.
The beginnings of the “nikkei” in Peru were hard and there the “Tanomoshi” helped.
“A common problem that migrants had to face was non-compliance with employment contracts, with salaries below what was agreed, delays in payment, poor nutrition, etc,” says Tokeshi.
Added to this was the refusal of banks and other financial institutions to grant credit to people who had no resources or roots in the country.
Saito explains that “‘Tanomoshi’ is a system that is based on trust.” Precisely the one that the Peruvian banks did not put in the Japanese immigrants. In the Tanomoshi there was no desire for profit from the participants and the commitment to pay was verbal.
The economic support of “Tanomoshi” helped them overcome these difficulties, but also acted as a mechanism that encouraged regular meetings and helped maintain the cohesion of the Nikkei community. No less important, it also helped to agree on a common position towards the contractor.
“Eventually, it helped many settle in the city and set up small businesses there for which they needed start-up capital,” Tokeshi says.
The “Tanomoshi”, today
The “Tanomoshi” was evolving towards a more traditional investment formula and was gaining complexity. Statutes and operating rules began to be drafted and little by little the profit motive began to prevail.
A modality was opened in which an auction is carried out in which the one who takes the fund is the one who offers the highest interest to the rest of the participants.
At present there are financial entities that offer them as investment products.
Although some descendants of those first travelers from Okinawa do not see it with good eyes.
Tokeshi states that “today’s ‘Tanomoshi’ has been distorted in its essence” and “the criteria of solidarity and urgency of the participants no longer count at all; it only matters who agrees to pay the largest amount of additional bonus.”
In any case, with the institution of the “Tanomoshi”, the “nikkei” managed to establish themselves and consolidate their position in Peru, laying the foundations of what is today a prosperous community that has left its mark on politics, the economy, culture and the gastronomy of the country.
In the 2017 census, more than 22,000 Peruvians declared being of “Nikkei” descent.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-65851680, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-06-15 13:10:10
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