In the early 20th century, Ryôji Noda, secretary consulate in both Peru and Brazil and expert advisor to the Japanese government on immigration to South America, was assigned to survey Colombia.

The hotel was converted into an internment camp for Japanese, Italian and German citizens until World War II ended in Europe and Asia.

Japanese people were the last to leave detention centers, being released on September 6, 1945, four days after General MacArthur accepted Japan's formal declaration of defeat.

For Japanese residents of Colombia, World War II caused the separation of families and economic struggle.

According to Toraji Irie’s work on Japanese immigration overseas, when Colombia lost control of the Isthmus of Panama in 1903, it created a sense of worry about the eminent threat of American intervention.

[6] During his visit to Japan, Izquierdo reported that referendum contracts were signed, in which it was expected that only two Japanese commissioners would be sent to study the living and work situation in Colombia, with the objective of promoting the immigration of their natives to said country.

The Japanese government complied with Izquierdo's request to send a representative to investigate the conditions of the country with a view to future emigration.

had published a note in which it mentioned that despite having passed a year since the signing of the Treaty and not having yet begun commercial and diplomatic relations, it was expected the future development of emigration would be a success.

[8] Noda, who was secretary consulate in both Peru and Brazil, as well as an expert adviser to the Japanese government on matters of immigration to South America, was entrusted with the mission to survey Colombia.

Noda refrained from recommending emigration to Colombia for several reasons, among others: the lack of a direct navigation route, which would make the trip very long and expensive; the poor internal communication conditions in Colombia, which would make it difficult to enter and leave the country; the enormous expanse occupied by rugged mountains; the lack of variety of agricultural products, and the periodic floods in the fertile zones of the Magdalena and Cauca rivers.

In 1926,[12] the Overseas Emigration Company from Fukuoka commissioned two of their employees, Yûzô Takeshima and Tokuhisa Makijima, to make an exploratory trip through Colombia in search of an appropriate place to establish an agricultural colony.

They began to create associations in which they felt comfortable, safe and united, and remembered their own cultural roots, worthy of pride.

In 1991, in Colombia, a subcontractor who was taking a tour through South American cities looking for workers of Japanese descent, made the initial contact through Colombian-Japanese associations in Cali and Barranquilla.

Through them, they got loans to finance the trip, they received help in processing their official papers with immigration, they found employment easily and lodging near work.

Some of the Colombian Nikkei, who started like the rest of their colleagues, in hard and heavy jobs of the factories, enjoy positions that are consistent with their professional training.

They continue to concern the education of children, the lack of social security that would insure them in case of illness or accident, and their inability to earn a pension in the future when they stop working.

[19] Since the revision of the immigration law in 1989, the flow of people from Latin American countries increased very rapidly in a short time.

It portrays the difficult transition, which takes place during the period of the war in the Pacific, after which Colombia, as an allied government of the United States, decided to separate Italian, German, and Japanese people from society, apart from making them outcasts.

In 1971, with the arrival of Shihan Hiroshi Taninokuchi [es] to Colombia, the Colombian Association of Karate (ASCOK) was founded with the introduction of the Shotokan style.