U.S.A.
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
November 1, 2021
Japanese, southern cultures blend in northeast Mississippi
By Danny McArthur
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
UPELO, Miss. (AP) — Mieko
Kikuchi remembers what it was
like coming to the United States
from Japan.
Kikuchi, a Japanese liaison for
Renasant and a member of Japan-America
Society of Mississippi’s board of directors,
said she was an active member of her
community when she lived in Japan, but
she needed help from her friends when she
moved to the U.S.
“Without their kindness, I couldn’t have
survived, not knowing the language, not
knowing the culture,” she said.
Renasant hired Kikuchi, a University of
Mississippi graduate and aspiring
southern belle, as their Japanese liaison
following the 2007 announcement of
Toyota’s plans to construct a plant in Blue
Springs. Much more than banking, her
role is to help Japanese families adjust to
their new southern lives, professionally
and socially.
She acts as a bridge — one of increasing
importance in the past decade — between
the cultures of Northeast Mississippi and
its growing Japanese community.
Building culture
Census data show Lee County’s Asian
population having increased by nearly
80% since 2010. In Union County, that
growth is more than 150%, and in
Lafayette, it’s just under 70%. Much of
that can be attributed to a surge in the
Japanese community over the past decade.
In 2008, the University of Mississippi,
alongside
Japanese
companies,
established
the
North
Mississippi
Japanese Supplementary School. That
same year, the Japan-America Society of
Mississippi (JASMIS) created its North
T
Mississippi chapter.
Kumi Richardson serves as the
Japanese liaison for BancorpSouth and,
like Kikuchi, was hired in the wake of
Toyota’s arrival in the area. She said the
arrival of a prominent Japanese company
in Northeast Mississippi opened the doors
to a community that likely wouldn’t have
come to the area otherwise.
“Because we are in the South, until now,
we didn’t have as many Japanese people as
other states,” Richardson said. “Like in
California, there is a Japanese commu-
nity, for example. But now we have a
Japanese community here. That’s a good
thing.”
For over a decade, Toyota Mississippi
has tried to integrate Japanese culture
into the local community, said Emily
Lauder, vice president of administration
for Toyota Mississippi. That started with
supporting the local chapter of JASMIS
and the Japanese Supplementary School.
In 2013, they partnered with the Gumtree
Multnomah County
property tax payments
are due Nov. 15, 2021.
Safe, easy, convenient.
Pay online, by phone or
HUVɉJPHSKYVWIV_
Learn more at
proptax.multco.us
Museum of Art to host Cultural
Connections, which presented Japanese
creators, art lectures and workshops, and
an exhibit of Japanese art.
Since then, Toyota’s contributions to
Northeast Mississippi’s Japanese commu-
nity have been numerous: calligraphy
classes, Japanese art programs, music,
and partnering with organizations to offer
cultural activities. They’ve donated
$55,000 to Japanese cultural programs so
far, including the North Mississippi
Cherry Blossom Festival, and Tupelo
Public School District (TPSD) cultural
awareness classes, and work to expose
younger kids, especially under-resourced
kids, to Japanese art and culture.
“Tupelo’s becoming somewhat of a
melting pot because of Toyota and because
of the suppliers and other businesses and
industries that are located here,” said
Emily
Wilemon-Holland,
corporate
communications analyst at Toyota North
America. “It’s kind of just continued, and
built, and it’s growing.”
Making the transition
A crescendo of cultural touchstones
followed Toyota’s arrival in Northeast
Mississippi, including a strengthened
Japanese involvement in the annual
Celebration of Cultures; growth in cultural
awareness in local schools; greater
inclusion of Japanese art, music, and food
in the region; the development of
multicultural groups such as Cooking as a
First Language; and increased presence as
students at First Baptist Church of
Tupelo’s English as a Second Language
(ESL) program.
For Toyota’s Japanese staff, these
events and programs are an important
part of feeling accepted by the local
community as well as connected to their
cultural heritage. Many of the Japanese
workers come to Blue Springs temporarily,
typically two to three years, before
returning to Japan.
Shoji Asai, whose position is group
manager, paint, has been with Toyota
Mississippi
since
February
2020.
Originally from Nagoya, he joined Toyota
20 years ago and is enjoying life in
Mississippi with his wife and three kids.
However, the initial transition was a
struggle. Asai’s family had just arrived in
Northeast Mississippi when the growing
pandemic forced schools to shut down.
They didn’t yet have a relationship with
his children’s school, and because his
children couldn’t speak English well, Asai
BLENDING CULTURES. This September 28,
2021 photo shows Kumi Richardson, Japanese liaison
and premier banking specialist/personal banker at
BancorpSouth in Tupelo, Mississippi. Since entering
her role in 2008, she’s watched as the Japanese com-
munity in Northeast Mississippi has developed and
grown, and helped several families navigate their
own adjustment to southern culture. (Thomas Wells/
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP)
found himself playing the role of language
teacher while also helping them with their
lessons.
“Our English sessions are kind of
fighting, honestly,” Asai said with a laugh.
“That was not so easy, but at that time, I’m
using cartoons to teach English to the kids,
through TV programs.”
Asai got creative, using his third grade
daughter’s homework to help teach his
sixth-grade son; using the science book,
and Google translate, to help work on
math, which was easy for his son, while
focusing on sentences, which was harder
for him.
“I tried to explain the mess. What is the
sentence meaning, what is ‘add,’” Asai
joked. “But now they have good memory
though, other than being challenging.”
Shintaro Watanabe, manager for Toyota
Tsusho, experienced a similar struggle
when he moved to the U.S. as a teenager.
As with Asai’s family, Watanabe moved to
the United States when his parents got
jobs here.
Although
Watanabe’s
parents
eventually returned to Japan, he decided
to stay. He attended college and eventually
landed a career that led him to Mississippi
in 2013. He met his wife, Ryoko Watanabe,
Toyota Mississippi’s HR business analyst,
and now the couple are part of Toyota’s
permanent staff.
Like her husband, Ryoko Watanabe,
who leads Toyota’s efforts to increase
awareness of Japanese culture within
TPSD, has also lived in the U.S. for more
than two decades. Before being hired by
Toyota in 2015, she was a TPSD
translator.
She sees her current role as helping
teachers understand their Japanese
students’ adjustment to the U.S. During
presentations, she shares the cultural
differences between America and Japan,
challenges during relocation adjustment,
and how TPSD is creating opportunities
for children.
“I am very thankful I got this
opportunity because this is my passionate
area, based on my own graduate and
undergraduate research about how
immigrants or temporary residents are
impacted by the cultural adjustment and
how their mental health is impacted,”
Watanabe said.
Remaining connected
Shino Sullivan was surprised that North
Mississippi already had a Japanese
Supplementary School when she moved to
Oxford in 2011. Before that, Sullivan
thought the usual destinations for coming
to the United States were the big places:
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago.
Mississippi was unexpected.
“I didn’t even know there was a
Japanese community in Mississippi when
I moved here,” she said.
Now, Sullivan is director of UM’s
US-Japan Partnership Program, under
which the supplementary school is offered.
Continued on page 9
The Asian Reporter is published on the first Monday each month.
News page advertising deadlines for our next two issues are:
December 6, 2021 edition:
Space reservations due: Wednesday, December 1 at 1:00pm
Artwork due: Thursday, December 2 at 1:00pm
January 3, 2022 edition:
Space reservations due: Wednesday, December 29 at 1:00pm
Artwork due: Thursday, December 30 at 1:00pm
For more information, please contact our advertising department at (503) 283-4440.