Japanese expatriates in Solomon Islands

A small, resident expatriate community of Japanese nationals was present in Solomon Islands from the 1970s onwards. Japanese nationals in Solomon Islands are usually employees of fishing corporations that had established branch companies in the country. The majority of them are fishermen from the Miyako Islands in the Ryukyu Islands, as well as a few Japanese mainlanders.

History

The Japanese Fisheries Corporation (Taiyo Gyogyo) expressed interests in fishery activities in the South Pacific nations from the late 1960s onwards, which included the Solomon Islands archipelago which was still under British rule. The Taiyo Gyogyo carried out feasibility studies and discovered reserves within Solomon's waters of skipjack and tuna, which were popular fish varieties in Japan. An agreement was secured between Taiyo Gyogyo and the British colonial administration in 1971. Later in the same year, Taiyo Gyogyo established a shorebase at Tulagi consisting of a small cannery and a fish smoking plant. The shorebase also served as Taiyo's branch headquarters in the Solomons, which was named Solomon Taiyo. Okinawan fishermen from Miyako were employed to carry out the fishery operations, and resident managers from mainland Japan were stationed in the Solomons to supervise operations. The Solomon Taiyo relied on private boats owned by Okinawan fishermen in the 1970s to carry out fishery operations, for which they were given an additional allowance.