Japanese settlement in the Marshall Islands Japanese settlement in the Marshall Islands Japanese settlement in the Marshall Islands was spurred on by Japanese trade in the Pacific region. The first Japanese explorers arrived in the Marshall Islands in the late 19th century, although permanent settlements were not established until the 1920s. As compared to other Micronesian islands in the South Pacific Mandate, there were fewer Japanese who settled in the islands. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Japanese populace were repatriated to Japan, although people of mixed Japanese–Marshallese heritage remained behind. They form a sizeable minority in the Marshall Islands' populace, and are well represented
Japanese settlement in the Marshall Islands report published by a German explorer, Hambruch in 1915 mentioned that three Japanese fishermen in a junk were massacred by the Marshallese at Lae Atoll in 1910. A military administration was established when Japan annexed the Marshall Islands from Germany in 1914. The Japanese government subsequently dispatched a few administrators to the Marshall Islands. Between 1915 and 1918, a few Japanese businessmen from the South Seas Trading Company ("Nanyo Boeki") sailed to the Marshall Islands and established a few trading stations at Rongrong, Talab and Majuro village. A typhoon struck Majuro in 1918 and the businessmen relocated their trading posts