To Japanese elsewhere, Jack Moyer may be a "gaijin," but to the people of Miyake Island, he is fellow islander Jack-san.
For the 71-year-old marine ecologist, the island's movers and shakers are like his own children, having witnessed the course of their lives since he started to live on the island in 1957 as an English teacher.
"One of the students has now become the island's tourism head," he said.