Carlos Kasuga

CARLOS KASUGA: [US president]Roosevelt asked the Mexicangovernment to send the Japanese hereto concentration camps in Texas. TheMexican government refused to do this,but did agree to move Japanesefromaround the country to Mexico City.When the order came for us torelocate, my family was living inCardenas, San Luis Potosí. We weregiven 72 hours to leave for MexicoCity. Two soldiers came to ourhouseto escort us and another Japanesefamily to the train station. The entiretown came to see us off. It was 1942or 43. I was seven years old.In spite of the suffering, I haveto give some thanks to theMexicangovernment. We had the bestconcentration camp in the world! InMexico City, we had access to schoolsand the chance to get an education.

IM: How did you start Yakult?

CK: When I was foundingthe LiceoMexicano Japonés, I traveled back andforth to Japan, looking for support.[Mexican president] Luis Echevarriahad given me letters of introductionto the Japanese government. I metacongressional representative, and Itold him about the problems we hadin Mexico, including unemploymentand intestinal problems caused by thewater. He said, you should bring Yakultto Mexico.In Japan, women soldYakult doorto door. People left money in theirmailboxes, and the ladies came by andleft the Yakult. I said to them, thismethod of sales will never work inMexico. But they said, we’re celebratingthe 10thanniversary of Yakult inBrazil. So I decided to give it a try.

Before we launched, my businesspartners and I did a market study.We needed to know what people reallyate, not just what they saidthey ate.For three months, we got up at 4 AMand gathered trash in Mexico Cityand around the country. We spreadout the contents to examine them. Weknew if people drank milk or didn’t, ifthey ate meat, andhow they cleanedtheir vegetables.When we examined the vegetablepeelings with a microscope, we foundlots of bacteria because they hadn’tbeen washed properly. This, amongother things, told us there...