FEATURE: Retiree realizing long-cherished dream in Vietnam

Asian Economic News, Jan 22, 2001

TOKYO, Jan. 19 Kyodo

As a boy, Ichio Yachimukai dreamed of becoming a teacher out of gratitude for the kindness of his junior high school teacher, but never imagined until 1999 he would one day venture to Vietnam to realize his long-cherished dream.

Yachimukai, 60, a resident of Sapporo, the capital of Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, was born in Yubari, also in Hokkaido, as the first of five sons. His father's death from tuberculosis when he was 15 left him to be raised single-handedly by his mother.

It was his junior high school teacher who left a deep impression on his life.

''My family was very poor. There was no money to join a school excursion. I thought I could not take part in the trip after all, but my class teacher paid for it. Just recalling that brings tears to my eyes,'' he said.

Yachimukai wanted to become either a teacher or a Buddhist monk. ''But my family did not have the money to send me to a regular senior high school and then university. So I attended an evening senior high school while working,'' he explained.

For more than 30 years, he worked for a company dealing in green tea. The job was enjoyable and he felt no dissatisfaction, eventually being promoted to an executive director.

One day in September 1999 on his 59th birthday and a year before retirement from the company, his family and relatives gathered to celebrate.

When they talked about his kanreki (60th anniversary celebration) the next year, memories of his boyhood suddenly flooded his mind.

On the day of a person's kanreki, relatives and friends are invited to a celebration feast, and it is customary for a person reaching 60 to wear something red.

''I really hate to sit on a square Japanese floor cushion wearing a red padded sleeveless coat,'' he said, referring to retired life.

Despite not having a teacher's license, a volunteer group told Yachimukai he could possibly teach Japanese abroad. Inspired, he took a six-month correspondence course and attended a weeklong lecture in Tokyo last summer when he was offered a job in Vietnam.

He and his wife had been living alone after their three children married or found jobs. Yachimukai phoned his wife in Sapporo and told her of the job offer.

''You have been working very hard for us. Your life after this is yours,'' his 55-year-old wife, Kyoko, replied. He retired at the age limit in September and went to Vietnam alone the following month.

He rented an apartment in Ho Chi Minh City and is now teaching Japanese as a trainee at the Sakura Japanese Language School in the morning, where 14 teachers, including four Japanese, are teaching to about 600 students. There is a growing demand for Japanese in Vietnam, which is opening up its economy, and the language is the second most popular after English.

The Japan Silver Volunteers, a nonpofit organization to which Yachimukai belongs, has sent a total of 2,800 people aged 40 or older, including Japanese language teachers, agriculture and fishery technicians and car repairers, to 61 countries between 1978 and March 2000 to foster technology transfers and grass-roots development in these countries.

''Nobody can be happy without thinking about how to contribute to the world. The older I become, the stronger I feel that way. The current life seems to be my first step in life. For me, the 21st century might be my young days,'' said Yachimukai with his eyes sparkling.