Yguazú Colony

The Yguazú Colony is located in Paraguay, approximately 70 km west of the Iguazú Falls that borders Argentina and Brazil. Purchased by The Japan Emigration Promotion, Co., Ltd. in 1960, the colony initially was approximately 87,762 hectares, but is now approximately 70,000 hectares (1/3 of the area of Tōkyō) because some of the land became submerged underwater due to dam construction downstream. Japanese settlement began in 1961 with the cultivation of wild forestry, vegetable and fruit production, and poultry and hog farms, among other diverse enterprises. By the 1980s, soybean and wheat production using large-scale machinery became mainstream. Non-tilled farming (the utilization of a farming technique that does not require tilling), which prevents land erosion by hard rain fall, was first introduced in Paraguay, and this highly profitable technique was popularly used by Nikkei agriculturalists, spreading nationwide. Since the 2000s there have been movements to add value to production, as in the case of operation of a flour mill.