Career
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. Rice farming
In 1901 Saibara came to Hartford, Connecticut to study theology.
He was then invited by the Japanese consul on behalf of the Houston Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Pacific Railroad to teach rice production to local farmers in Texas.
In 1903 Saibara came to Texas where he began the first Japanese-Christian colony in Texas. The first crop, grown from seed imported as a gift from the Emperor of Japan and harvested in 1904, was primarily distributed as seed in Texas and Louisiana.
At that time, the average rice yield using seed from Honduras or the Carolinas was 18-20 barrels an acre while the Japanese seeds yielded 34 barrels (54 m3) per acre. Seito and Kiyoaki Saibara are credited with building the multimillion-dollar Texas rice industry with their improved rice strains and production techniques.
South America
Illinois health caused him to return to Texas in 1937.
He died, still a Japanese citizen, in Webster on April 11, 1939, and was buried at the Fairview Cemetery. Seito Saibara would later be declared one of the 100 Tallest Texans by the Houston Chronicle newspaper.
