Global History of Japanese Coffee Farmers before WW2

This paper aims to reconsider the history of coffee production, based on the examination of the pre-war Japanese immigrants who were involved in coffee production in Brazil, Mexico and Taiwan. Much of recent research on coffee has been focusing on the 'North-South' issue, which stresses the exploitive and confrontational power dynamics between consumers who live in developed countries and producers in developing countries. In this paper, however, by focusing on 'international migration' of Japanese people as well as coffee in the pre-war period, I attempt to shed a light on the aspect of Japanese as coffee 'producers', not 'consumers', and explore the differences in their status and roles at their destinations. In addition, I look at the process of 'border crossing' between inside and outside of the Japanese Empire, which was created by the combined migrations of Japanese people and coffee. Through the examination, I attempt to emphasize the importance of relationships and networks created in the process of transcending various 'borders' when analysing the 'globalization' of the 20th century