A Japanese resident of Brazil has discovered the building that housed Japan's first legation there, three years after he began searching for it in connection with the centennial of Japanese emigration to the South American country.
Kiyoshi Ami, 67, who hails from Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, began hunting for the diplomatic mission when he started research for a commemorative publication marking the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese emigrants settling in Brazil.
Japan opened the legation in Petropolis on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro in the southeastern part of Brazil in 1897 after the two countries set up diplomatic relations in 1895, following Brazil's shift to a republic in 1889.