Asajiro Noda

was a Japanese New Zealand seaman, cashier, gum-digger and farmer. He is noted as the first Japanese settler in New Zealand.

Life Noda was born in Japan on 17 January 1868 in a small village, Tomioka on Shimoshima Island, Amakusa to father Kaka Shi Kuishn and mother Noi Kimomo Kena Kuishn.

Sailing the Pacific for a few years, Noda finally disembarked in the New Zealand South Island port of Bluff in Invercargill, sometime in the 1880s-1890s. He first found work in Invercargill as a cashier as he speaking both Japanese, German and English. Noda's son Martin Asajiro Noda made contact with their family in Japan who remembered the young Noda's disappearance. Martin Noda was taken to an internment camp on Matiu Somes Island, Wellington, where he remained for four months. Asajiro Noda was not interned due to his age and declining health.

Asajiro Noda died on 9 July 1942 in Maungaturoto, aged 74. He is buried in the Kakarea Churchyard near the Otamatea Marae.