KOBE (Kyodo) A migration center to help foreign residents opened Wednesday in a building used by Japanese emigrants in the early 20th century.
The opening of the Kobe Center for Overseas Migration and Cultural Interaction coincides with the centennial of the first ship to carry Japanese emigrants from the port to Brazil.
Among the people the center aims to help are Brazilian immigrants of Japanese descent.
The renovated building also has reconstructions of rooms from the early 20th century and farm equipment used by Japanese migrants.
Launched in 1928, the Kobe Emigration Center operated until 1971 as Japan's only remaining migration-related facility. The building survived both the Allied bombings of World War II and the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
