without a doubt japan is the best place to be for any fish, including bichirs. But if we're just talking about bichirs, the US is actually the best place to be after japan.
And when I said these people helped the Japanese get the fish, what i meant was the Japanese were in East Africa collecting bichirs, but they need guards and guides, and these were the people hired. So from the start, the bichirs were destined to go back to japan