We introduce small- and medium-sized companies in Tokyo with a strong connection to Asia. Over two issues, we will introduce Taiyo Metal-Working, a company set up by Mr. Tran Van Duong, who came to Japan from Vietnam as one of the Boat People.

Do you know the term "Boat People?" In 1975, as the three countries of Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) each moved toward a socialist system of government, many feared they would come to harm under the new type of government, or would struggle with such things as the new system, and so they fled their country by boat on the open seas, and thus they came to be called the Boat People. Taiyo Metal-Working, the company we will introduce in this edition, is a company that Mr. Tran Van Duong set up in Tokyo's Ota Ward in 2004 after he escaped from Vietnam as one of the Boat People and found his way to Japan. The company carries out machinery processing and production of such items as automobile parts or medical equipment components. In this edition, we talk to Mr. Duong, the president of Taiyo Metal-Working. Mr. Tran Van Duong, president of Taiyo Metal-Working. —Please tell us about how you came to Japan. "I was born in the town of Vung Tau in southern Vietnam, but when I was 18 (in 1982), I left my parents' side in Vietnam and fled from Vietnam in a single boat. At the time, Vietnam was in the middle of the Indochinese war and it was really in terrible disorder. Soon after graduating from school, I was reluctant to be sent to the war zone as a soldier, but I could not control the desire to try and test out my potential in another country. I rode on the boat with large numbers of other people and we drifted along for about one week while eating only a single meal every day. It was extremely terrible and an awful experience, but I never gave up the hope that we would definitely be saved. Fortunately, we were rescued by a Japanese oil tanker and then sent on to Singapore. After being held in Singapore for about three months, I traveled to Japan as a refugee." —Was it tough for you when you first arrived in Japan? "For the first three months that I was here, I studied Japanese at the International Refugee Assistance Center. I had come to Japan without speaking a word of Japanese, so I felt that it was extremely difficult. Later, while working at a printing company during the day, I attended high school evening classes. As I gained greater proficiency in the Japanese language, I began to get more used to life in Japan." —Please tell us what happened after that until you set up Taiyo Metal-Working. "Once I had graduated from evening classes at high school, I went to work full-time at a machinery processing company. I spent about 15 years at that company, polishing my machinery processing techniques. I still couldn't speak Japanese well enough, but Ms. Kumiko Ogawa, who worked at that company at that time (and is now the director in charge of sales at Taiyo Metal-Working) was very kind in the way that she would give me advice. Thanks to her, I got used to the atmosphere at the company and could take my time to learn about the techniques behind machinery processing. File image: Boat People being rescued by an oil tanker. (Photo courtesy of "Indo-Chinese Refugees and the Government of Japan Response," The Coordination Council for Indo-Chinese Refugees and Displaced Persons Cabinet Secretariat.) Perhaps it would have been good if I had stayed at that company, but I had a dream. That dream was to create my own company that would allow me to use all my abilities as I liked, and to be a receptacle to my fellow Vietnamese people who were struggling in Japan. Due to that, when the time came that I felt I had enough confidence in my own machinery processing techniques, I began to seriously thinking about going off on my own. " —President Duong, being in a foreign country, there must have been so many difficulties facing you when you went about setting up the company? "Yes, there was. The biggest problem was, of course, money. I was not able to borrow any money from the banks, so the only money I had was that money that I could borrow from people I knew. Fortunately, thanks to them, I somehow managed to be able to get enough machinery together, though it was still not really enough. On the other hand, when I set up the company together with Ms. Ogawa, she proved to be an extremely assuring presence. As I still lack the ability to use Japanese as freely as I would like, she provided all sorts of support in many different areas. And in addition, companies that had known about me through my previous company had faith in my abilities and sent work around to me, for which I was extremely grateful. " —Incidentally, please tell us how the naming of Taiyo Metal-Working came about. "I chose that name because I imagined the seas (taiyo in Japanese) and wanted the company to be one that would aspire to large ambitions and dreams. I came from Vietnam to Japan to start a company, and did so by sailing on a boat across the seas. The seas had really incorporated the dreams that I had envisaged when I was on the boat, and then they had turned those dreams into a reality. Nowadays, with the global climate worsening there are problems arising in all sorts of areas, but I pray that the seas remain as beautiful and as vast as they are forever. I do not have a lot of power, but my thoughts are that I want to be able to continue to make a constructive contribution to society in some way through the manufacture of cheap and reliable parts. " After a life-threatening journey across the seas, President Duong made it to Japan and steadily built a foundation for himself in Japan. In our next edition, we will hear from the employees who share the same dreams as President Duong.