big business

I think our month should include accounts of Asian economic success. Takaki goes into some detail about Japanese business entreprenuer Masajiro Furuya and the following are excerpts from Chapter 5 the section on ethnic solidarity, the Japanese settling of America. It's hard to display this sort of historical information in an exciting way. Maybe a skit in a performance we put on during the month that describes the kind of communities immigrant Japanese would find in the states and how Furuya and his company facilitated the settling of America for his kind, and paved the way for future ethnic enterprises.

From Takaki:

Japanese ethnic enterprise in America also included large-scale businesses. Masajiro Furya was considered a top businessman among Japanese on the Pacific Coast. Borin in 1863, Furuya received a teacher's credential and served in the military for three years. In 1890 he arrived in Seattle, where he worked as a tailor; two years later, he opened a tailor shop and grocery store. His business expanded rapidy as more and more Japanese immigrants came to the Northwest. His grocery store became a department store where Japeanese customers could find ethnic foods such as sake and tofu as well as Japanese art. Furuya established branch stores in Portland and Tacoma, a post office, a labor supply agency, and the Japanese Commercial Bank...

Furuya was able to pay his Japanese workers ow wages, for they were unable to find employment in white owned companies...The Furuya Company was part of a grwoing service economy that paralleled increasing Japanese participation in agriculture.