Shahidul Islam Khan, 40, is a cab driver at Royal Limousine in Tokyo. Born in Bangladesh, Khan moved to Japan in 1994 and ran a successful import business until 2008 when the economic downturn forced him to close shop and start driving instead. In the notoriously difficult Japanese cab system, Khan is special: Alongside a few Chinese and Koreans, he is one of very few foreigners driving cabs in Japan. Khan has always loved driving and now that he has managed to turn his hobby into a living, he can't stop smiling. As he says himself, "All roads lead to a new ride and another adventure," and, of course, to Mecca, where he hopes to take his whole family very soon.
When you hear that the grass is greener on the other side, you should jump over quickly — before a drought destroys it. I have friends in London and Canada so I could have gone to either of those places, but one of my buddies told me that Japan was a fun country where people were very good and it was easy for foreigners to live. I came here immediately and a couple of my friends followed me!
No matter how well a business is going, it can go down any second. I used to sell ethnic clothing, but by 2000, Chinese-made similar-looking and much cheaper goods flooded the Japanese market. To make matters worse, at least for importers like me, the Indian and Bangladeshi economy steadily improved. So while prices increased there, they dropped in Japan. I had no way to survive.