Seito Saibara

Apart from his missionary activities, he is credited with having first established the rice industry on the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Later Saibara would be asked to relinquish his seat in the parliament to become president of Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.

He was then encouraged by Japanese Consul General Sadatsuchi Uchida, the Houston Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Pacific Railroad to travel to Texas to teach rice production to local farmers.

His extended family (including his parents Hide and Masuya, and his son Kiyoaki) and 30 other colonists joined him in Webster, Texas to begin rice farming on a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) lease that Saibara later bought.

Saibara left Texas with his wife and spent fifteen years in South America, where he established colonies along the Amazon River, before returning to Japan.