The devastating floods in Thailand last year took a toll on some 450 Japanese companies operating in the country.

Some Thai employees of a Panasonic affiliate who lost their jobs after their plant in Ayutthaya was flooded are now working hard at a plant in Owariasahi, Aichi Prefecture.

Jiraporn Tulwanthana, 37, whose house in Ayutthaya was submerged, left her family there and came to Japan to work. While shivering in the cold winter of Japan, weather she has never experienced, she is happy to have a job.