Japan on Thursday celebrated 100 years of emigration to Brazil, the foreign country with the world's largest population of ethnic Japanese.
The occasion was marked with a ceremony in Tokyo, which was attended by Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko and their son Crown Prince Naruhito as well as premier Yasuo Fukuda and a representative of Brazil's president.
Nearly 800 Japanese set sail on the "Kasato Maru" ship from Kobe in search of better living conditions and arrived at Santos Port in June 1908 only to find a gruelling life working on farmland.
Brazil is now home to more than 1.2 million people of Japanese descent, or "Nikkeis," whose ancestors arrived when Asia's future economic giant suffered widespread poverty.
"I feel very deeply for the toils of Brazilians of Japanese descent who worked for so long," Emperor Akihito said in a speech before hundreds of Brazilian-Japanese.
"I feel hopeful that today's Nikkeis have succeeded in various areas and have contributed to Brazilian society," he said.
Fukuda added: "Japan values its cooperation with Brazil because as a country that has the largest rainforest, it actively leads the debate in the international community on environmental issues and climate change."
Japan has invited Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to attend July's Group of Eight summit of rich nations, where global warming is set to be high on the agenda.
Japan, which has few natural resources, has increasingly sought to boost commerce with Brazil, the world's largest exporter for ethanol.
But "from now on, there is a necessity to take the two countries' relationship to new fields and engage in technical transfers, including of nuclear power, space development and railroads," said Dilma Rousseff, Lula's Chief of Staff, who was at the ceremony.
Most recently Brazilian oil giant Petrobras in April bought an 87.5 percent stake in Nansei oil company located in the southern island of Okinawa, from where many Japanese departed for Brazil.
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