Ask Michiko Kohga what she wanted when she was a little girl, and she answers promptly, "I wanted to eat." She was a child during the early postwar years, when all Japan was hungry. She remembers her family receiving a food package from relatives in Sao Paulo. "The candy in it was like jewelry to me," she said.
Nowadays she has a different kind of hunger. She believes that modern living, the computer and electronic messaging are taking the place of people actually meeting and talking with each other. Not meeting and interacting with others can aggravate bad situations, she thinks. Her communication advocacies "increase the chances for people to meet and develop interests. If I can help take even a small step towards making the world better, this is what I want to do. I want to be full spiritually," she said.
That food package from Sao Paulo set the child Michiko dreaming. She wanted to know the world outside Japan. At Rikkyo University, where she specialized in English and American literature, she joined the English Speaking Society. Away from classes, she worked as a student interpreter guide for tourists from overseas. After graduation, on her own initiative she made her way to the University of the Pacific in California. There she studied communication.