In 1986, shortly before the beginning of Japan's "bubble economy," a department in the former Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) announced a plan named Silver Columbia 92.

The project encouraged Japan's private sector to develop "silver towns," communities abroad that would attract large numbers of Japanese retirees. The United States, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, various Asian nations and Australia were listed as possible destinations.

The name Silver Columbia 92 acknowledged that 1992, the year the project was to be launched in earnest, would fall on the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New World.