Tetsuyoshi Kodama, a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian, became the first foreign national to pass the taxi driver test in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1991.
After driving around the city of Hamamatsu for about four years, he took on other jobs, including at a temporary employment agency and as a part-time Portuguese-Japanese interpreter at a local police station.
Today, the 46-year-old Kodama owns two companies and teaches at a karate dojo he opened in 2005. He has nearly 80 students — over half of them Japanese — learning either karate or kick-boxing there.