HIGASHI-KAGAWA, Kagawa Prefecture--When he was starting out in business in the 1960s, Etsuo Miyoshi, who would inherit the major glove maker Swany Corp. from his family, crisscrossed the globe trying to introduce the brand to new markets.

But because the young salesman could not yet speak English very well, virtually no one he met with while trying to pitch the company’s ski and thermal wear understood what he was saying when he pronounced the word “glove.”

Miyoshi desperately studied English to become a better global pitchman and his skills gradually improved. But he never shook his sense of frustration at the dominance of Anglo-American English, which has sidelined other languages to such an extent that some call it “English language imperialism.”

“Anglophones have a great advantage just by being who they are,” Miyoshi said. “That’s not fair.”

Now in his golden years and no longer helming the company, Miyoshi is trying to change that. But the language he wants to replace English with is not Japanese, or one that is tied to any nation for that matter.

The 83-year-old former president of Swany is pumping hundreds of millions of yen (millions of dollars) into efforts to popularize Esperanto, an artificial language created more than a century ago that has long struggled to really take off.

He ran advertisements across a range of newspapers--three German, two French and two Polish--in January, calling for Esperanto to be adopted as an official language of the European Union.

He believes the entire world would change if Esperanto is adopted as an official language of the European Union, which has 27 member nations, and more people start to use it.

“Esperanto can be learned five times quicker than English,” Miyoshi said. “I am convinced it will be a key to world peace.”

Miyoshi is running three alternating full-page ads once a month for seven months through July, headlined: “EU yes; Euro yes; Esperanto?”

He said he came up with the plan for the ads after he sold his stake in Swany, which had been taken over by one of his sons-in-law. They decided to sell Swany to an outside party because the company had no heir apparent.

Miyoshi said he and his family will cover the cost of the ads, which he described as totaling “several hundreds of millions of yen.”

He has enlisted the help of his wife and two sons-in-law, who have worked in the company’s management.

“My family members were initially dead set against my proposal,” he said. “They said it was like throwing money down the drain. But they understood me in the end.”

Esperanto was created by L.L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), a Jewish Polish ophthalmologist, in 1887.

Zamenhof saw up close how religious and ethnic differences put people at odds with each other and thought a universal language with simple grammar could help bridge the gaps between people otherwise divided by language barriers.

His three children would eventually be killed in the Holocaust.

Miyoshi also lived through World War II and saw its devastation up close, which has made him passionate about peace.

He was 5 when he saw ash falling in what today is Higashi-Kagawa--where Swany is based--during an air raid carried out over Takamatsu, the prefectural capital, about 40 kilometers away. He remembers how he saw his parents off as they set out to provide relief, after cooking all the rice they had and making it into rice balls.

Miyoshi began studying Esperanto when he was still president of Swany when he was 55. He said he has grown so familiar with the language that he sometimes finds himself responding in Esperanto when he receives phone calls in English.

Miyoshi is an honorary member of the European Esperanto Union, which organizes national Esperanto associations in EU member states. Day after day, he strategized in online meetings with European Esperantists, including a great-granddaughter of Zamenhof, about where to place his ad buys--always in Esperanto, of course.

When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February last year, immediately after the ads project started, some European Esperantists proposed putting the ad blitz on hold.

But Miyoshi insisted they persist.

“Esperanto, which is equal for everyone, should be given recognition precisely now for the sake of a permanent peace,” he told them.

He is not the only one in the world promoting Esperanto. For example, a phrase was written in Esperanto on the official match ball used in the soccer World Cup last year to replace Russian text, which was removed because of its aggression against Ukraine.

But one expert said despite the enthusiasm its proponents have, it is unlikely the EU will adopt the language anytime soon.

“The EU sets out that its official languages should be those commonly used in its member states, so it appears unlikely that it will designate Esperanto as one of its official languages,” said Goro Christoph Kimura, a Sophia University professor of sociolinguistics. But Miyoshi’s ads “could have a social impact by reminding European citizens of Esperanto’s presence.”

The language faces a major uphill battle, to say the least. It only has an estimated 1 million speakers around the world today. But Miyoshi remains undaunted.

“The EU may not make Esperanto an official language despite my ads,” he said. “But I would accept that only if I (first attempt to change its mind) before I die.”