タワウ日本人墓地　
日本人合同墓碑（裏面）に刻まれている物故者氏名

The Japanese cemetery was under the care of the Japanese Consulate in Kota Kinabalu. The cemetery was well managed.

There is also a Japanese Cemetery in Sandakan

Most of those buried in the Tawau cemetery were the Japanese passed away before the second world war.

Original Reference Source :  http://www.questia.com

Japanese have played a major part in the economic development of Tawau since the 1898.

Japan was a source of skilled and unskilled workers, and also prostitutes, in the 1890s, while the early 1900s brought growing numbers of peasant-agriculturalists, shopkeepers and small businessmen. Restrictive immigration measures introduced in the United States, Canada and the Philippines after 1900 forced the Japanese government to give serious consideration to Sabah as a potential destination for Japanese settlers. Japan sent its Consul in Batavia, Nariaki Someya, to Sandakan in 1910 to carry out a feasibility study on this issue. As a result, the number of Japanese in Sabah began to increase after 1910.

By the 1930s, both individual Japanese immigrants and Japanese firms were already active in economic activities, with two conglomerate giants, Kuhara (Nissan) and Kubota (Mitsubishi), as the major investors.'
Two road were named after two of them, Jalan Kuhara and Jalan Kubota, both  remain as important road in Tawau.

There is a study of the Japanese economic role in Sabah by Yukata Shimomoto on "Japan and the Chartered Company,- a short  account. by Shimomoto on "Japanese Immigrants in Tawau, British North Borneo",

Japanese immigrants to Tawau contributed to the following fields: agriculture, particularly the growing of rubber and manila hemp; tuna and skipjack fishing; and the canning of tuna.

There was a secret immigration scheme by successive Japanese governments operated from 1915 to the 1930s.


Under the rule of the British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBCC), Sabah was unique in Southeast Asia in that it recruited not only Chinese workers but also Japanese immigrants to overcome a shortage of manpower. The plan to obtain Japanese labor began as early as 1893 when Governor C.V. Creagh wrote to Japan officially after failing to secure Indian and Javanese labors. The Japanese Foreign Ministry, reacting to the efforts of the Sabah government, introduced "emigration agencies" for this purpose.

Today there are about 20 Japanese working in Tawau in the timber industry.

Japanese investment was the largest investment in Tawau before the second world war. Many Japanese and Taiwanese (recruded by Japanese) came to Tawau to develop rubber and plantations. Tawau was important to the Japanese during World War Two (1941-1945) for its timber and minerals from the surrounding forest and hills.