It was 1958 when a 14-year-old Isao Taoka headed for Paraguay from Yokohama port with his parents and siblings as part of a government-backed emigration project.

After 46 years, Taoka is back in Japan as Paraguay's ambassador to Tokyo, hoping to "repay the kindness" of economic assistance Japan provided him and his fellow immigrant farmers to confront the hardships of their new land.

Taoka, who recently dropped his Japanese citizenship, which he held along with Paraguayan nationality, is the first Japan-born Paraguayan to be named his adopted nation's ambassador to Japan.