The first Japanese were brought to Ocean Island to work as mechanics at the direction of the Pacific Phosphate Company in 1905.

Japanese labourers were also brought from the early 1910s onwards as the company faced work problems from Gilbertese and Chinese workers.

[3] Japanese traders from the South Seas Trading Company (Nanyo Boeki Kaisha) also began to visit the Gilbert Islands at the start of World War I.

[6] The Japanese military administration also brought in Okinawan labourers who were conscripted to build naval facilities around the islands.

[9] Japanese fishermen started fishing for tuna in Kiribati from the late 1970s, and reportedly engage in occasional promiscuous liaisons with local Gilbertese prostitutes in Betio.