Total population | |
---|---|
211,840 (in December, 2023) [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Nagoya, Hamamatsu, [2] Toyohashi, Toyota, [3] Ōizumi, [4] Echizen, Takaoka | |
Languages | |
Portuguese, Japanese | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholicism, Japanese new religions [5] Minority: Buddhism and Shinto | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Brazilians, Japanese people, Japanese Brazilians, Peruvians in Japan |
There is a significant community of Brazilians in Japan, consisting largely but not exclusively of Brazilians of Japanese descent. Brazilians with Japanese descent are known as Nikkei Brazilians. [6] They constitute the largest number of native Portuguese speakers in Asia, greater than those of formerly Portuguese East Timor, Macao and Goa combined. Likewise, Brazil maintains its status as home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan.
During the 1980s, the Japanese economic situation improved and achieved stability. Many Japanese Brazilians, mainly Japanese citizenship holding first and second generation, went to Japan as contract workers due to economic problems in Brazil. They were termed "Dekasegi". [7]
In 1990, the Japanese government authorized the legal entry through visas of Japanese and their descendants until the third generation in Japan. [7] [8] At that time, Japan was receiving a large number of illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Thailand. [9] The legislation of 1990 was intended to select immigrants who entered Japan, giving a clear preference for Japanese descendants from South America, especially Brazil. These people were lured to Japan to work in areas that the Japanese refused (the so-called "three K": Kitsui, Kitanai and Kiken – dirty, dangerous and demeaning). [7] [9] Many Japanese Brazilians began to immigrate. The influx of Japanese descendants from Brazil to Japan was and continues to be large. By 1998, there were 222,217 Brazilians in Japan, making up 81% of all Latin Americans there (with most of the remainder being Japanese Peruvians and Japanese Argentines). [8]
Because of their Japanese ancestry, the Japanese Government believed that Brazilians would be more easily integrated into Japanese society.[ citation needed ] In fact, this easy integration did not happen, since Japanese Brazilians and their children born in Japan are treated as foreigners by native Japanese. [7] Even people who were born in Japan and immigrated at an early age to Brazil and then returned to Japan are treated as foreigners. [9] [10] Despite the fact that most Brazilians in Japan look Japanese and have a recent Japanese background, they do not "act Japanese" and have a Brazilian identity, and in many if not most cases speak Portuguese as their first or only language. This apparent contradiction between being and seeming causes conflicts of adaptation for the migrants and their acceptance by the natives. [11] (There have been comparable problems in Germany with Russians of ethnic German descent, showing that this phenomenon is not necessarily unique to Japan.)
In April 2009, due to the financial crisis, the Japanese government introduced a new program that would incentivize Brazilian and other Latin American immigrants to return home with a stipend of $3000 for airfare and $2000 for each dependent. Those who participate must agree not to pursue employment in Japan in the future. [12]
As of December 2023, there were 211,840 Brazilian nationals in Japan, of whom 115,287 were permanent residents. [13] [14] [15]
Brazilians of Japanese descent in particular find themselves the targets of discrimination; some local Japanese scorn them as the descendants of "social dropouts" who emigrated from Japan because they were "giving up" on Japanese society, whereas others perceive them more as objects of pity than scorn, people who were forced into emigrating by unfortunate circumstances beyond their control such as birth order or lack of opportunities in rural areas. [16] The largest numbers are concentrated in Toyota, Ōizumi, where it is estimated that up to 15% of the population speaks Portuguese as their native language, and Hamamatsu, which contains the largest population of Brazilians in Japan. [17] In some of these communities, Brazilians have taken on active roles in local residence councils to help bridge social, cultural, and linguistic gaps between Japanese-speaking and Portuguese-speaking residents. A number of NGOs have also been established by Brazilians to help improve integration and educational opportunities for residents. [18] Brazilians are not particularly concentrated in larger cities such as Tokyo or Osaka. Brazilians tend to be more concentrated where there are large factories, as most who first moved to Japan tended to work in automobile plants and the like.
Brazilian population by prefecture | 2009 [19] |
---|---|
Aichi Prefecture | 67,162 |
Shizuoka Prefecture | 42,625 |
Mie Prefecture | 18,667 |
Gifu Prefecture | 17,078 |
Gunma Prefecture | 15,324 |
Kanagawa Prefecture | 13,091 |
Saitama Prefecture | 12,301 |
Shiga Prefecture | 11,384 |
Nagano Prefecture | 10,938 |
Ibaraki Prefecture | 10,200 |
As of 2004, the cities with under 1,000,000 total inhabitants with the largest Brazilian Nikkei populations were Hamamatsu (12,766), Toyohashi (10,293), Toyota (6,266), Okazaki (4,500), Suzuka (4,084), Kani (3,874), Komaki (3,629), Isesaki (3,372), Ōta (3,245), and Ōgaki (3,129). The cities with 1,000,000 or more inhabitants had low percentages of Brazilians. [20]
In the late 2000s, it was estimated that each year, 4,000 Brazilian immigrants returned to Brazil from Japan. [21]
Many Brazilians of Japanese descent face discrimination in both Brazil and Japan. In Brazil, they are often discriminated against because of their Japanese appearance and heritage; in Japan, they are looked down on because their customs, cultural behavior, and Japanese language proficiency are not up to Japan's native standard. In Japan, many Japanese Brazilians suffer prejudice because they do not know how to speak Japanese correctly. Despite their Japanese appearance and heritage, many Japanese Brazilians in Japan are culturally very Brazilian, often only speaking Brazilian Portuguese, and are treated as foreigners. [3]
Academic studies[ citation needed ] report that many Japanese Brazilians felt (and were often treated as) Japanese in Brazil. But when they move to Japan, they realize their strong feelings for their Brazilian background. In Brazil, many Japanese Brazilians rarely listened to samba or participated in a carnival parade. However, once in Japan, Japanese Brazilians often promote carnivals and samba festivities in the Japanese cities to demonstrate their pride in being Brazilian. [22] [ failed verification ]
The Brazilian influence in Japan is growing. Tokyo has the largest carnival parade outside of Brazil itself.[ citation needed ] Portuguese is the third most spoken foreign language in Japan, after Chinese and Korean, and is among the most studied languages by students in the country. In Ōizumi, Gunma, it is estimated that 15% of the population speak Portuguese as their native language. Japan has two newspapers in the Portuguese language, besides radio and television stations spoken in that language. The Brazilian fashion and Bossa nova music are also popular among Japanese. [4]
Japanese Brazilians have benefited tremendously from migrating to Brazil. An anthropologist known as Takeyuki Tsuda, coined the term "positive minority" to describe Japanese Brazilians' socioeconomic status in Brazil. The majority of Brazilians with Japanese descent have a high socioeconomic status despite their inactivity in politics and smaller demographics. [11] They were viewed in Brazil as a “model minority,” meaning that were looked up upon by other Brazilian natives with their good education and middle class economic status. When Japanese Brazilians migrated back to Japan, many of them faced a drastic change to their social and ethnic status. Many Japanese Brazilian immigrants took over jobs that were viewed as low skilled, high labor, and dirty to Japanese society due to an inability to speak fluently in Japanese. Despite the negative stigma, many of these blue-collar jobs in Japan provided higher pay than white collar jobs in Brazil. This motivated many Japanese Brazilians to migrate back to Japan. [6]
With Catholicism widespread in Brazil, in the early days of Brazilian migration to Japan, Catholic churches often served as spaces for migrant gatherings and socialization. After World War II many first generation Japanese migrants encouraged their offspring to convert to the Catholic religion for social and economic opportunities in Brazil. However, the growth of secular Brazilian community organization, media, and businesses in Japan has taken over part of this role from the churches. [23] Migrants, including Brazilians, make up perhaps as much as half of the total Catholic population in Japan. However, differences in culture and even in religious tradition have made it difficult to integrate Brazilian migrants into native Japanese Catholic congregations. [24] For example, in the Saitama Diocese, although Japanese-speaking and Portuguese-speaking congregations share the same church building, exchange between them is almost non-existent, and the two groups hold ceremonies, celebrations, and other events separately. [25] There is also a growing number of Pentecostal denominations in Japan led by migrants from Brazil. [26]
Japanese new religions see the stream of Brazilian migration as an opportunity to gain new converts. [27] The Church of World Messianity (SKK, for Sekai Kyūsei Kyō) is one Japanese new religion which has had a strong following in Brazil; by 1998 they had 300,000 members in Brazil, 97% of non-Japanese background. [27] With the increase in Brazilian migration to Japan, by 2006 a total of 21 Johrei centres had engaged Brazilian SKK missionaries in order to provide Portuguese-language orientation to Brazilian migrants. They have been somewhat more successful than Catholics in promoting integration between the Brazilian and Japanese parts of their congregations. [28]
Brazilians tend to take jobs considered undesirable by native Japanese, such as working in electronics factories, [29] and in the automotive sector. [30] Most Brazilians go to Japan attracted by the recruiting agencies in conjunction with the factories. Many Brazilians are subjected to hours of exhausting work, earning a small salary by Japanese standards.[ citation needed ] Nevertheless, in 2002, Brazilians living in Japan sent US$2.5 billion to Brazil. [31]
As of 2005 there were 40,000 Brazilian children of school age in Japan. [30] By 2008 the number of Brazilian school age children was almost 33,500. [3] As of 2005 8,000 study at Japanese schools, [30] and by 2008 that number was about 10,000. [3] The children of Dekasegi Brazilians encounter difficulties in Japanese schools. [32] As of 2005 15,000 study at one of the 63 private Brazilian schools. The Ministry of Education of Brazil approved 36 of them. [30]
As of 2005 17,000 school-aged Brazilian children were not attending school. [30] As of 2008 thousands of Brazilian children are out of school in Japan. [3] Adriana Stock of the BBC stated that the school fees were too high for many Brazilian parents. [30]
Nonetheless, since the onset of reverse migration, many Japanese Brazilians who are not of mixed ancestry have also endeavored to learn Japanese at native levels. However, while such cases like these are high, the statistics fail to show a high rate of such Japanese Brazilians succeeding to integrate into Japanese society because the vast majority of such people end up achieving Japanese citizenship naturalization. Once they obtain Japanese citizenship, regardless of whether or not the Japanese citizen is still considered to be a citizen of Brazil in the eyes of the Brazilian government, Japanese statistics record such people as only Japanese. If they pursue university in Japan, they must take exams alongside other native Japanese citizens. Thus, even while Japan has many Japanese Brazilians that are completely bilingual, with Japanese statistics failing to count Japanese Brazilians who have since naturalized, such Japanese Brazilians are not given the credit statistically for the fact that Japanese society has placed a much higher bar for them to integrate into Japanese society than other non-Japanese foreigners, and have since successfully integrated into Japanese society both culturally and linguistically.
The Japanese diaspora and its individual members, known as Nikkei (日系) or as Nikkeijin (日系人), comprise the Japanese emigrants from Japan residing in a country outside Japan. Emigration from Japan was recorded as early as the 15th century to the Philippines, but did not become a mass phenomenon until the Meiji period (1868–1912), when Japanese emigrated to the Philippines and to the Americas. There was significant emigration to the territories of the Empire of Japan during the period of Japanese colonial expansion (1875–1945); however, most of these emigrants repatriated to Japan after the 1945 surrender of Japan ended World War II in Asia.
Hamamatsu is a city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In September 2023, the city had an estimated population of 780,128 in 340,591 households, making it the prefecture's largest city, with a population density of 500/km2 (1,300/sq mi) over the total urban area of 1,558.06 km2 (601.57 sq mi).
Japanese Brazilians are Brazilian citizens who are nationals or naturals of Japanese ancestry or Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Japanese people of Brazilian ancestry.
Dekasegi is a term that is used in Latin America to refer to people, primarily Japanese Brazilians and Japanese Peruvians, who have migrated to Japan, having taken advantage of Japanese citizenship or nisei visa and immigration laws to work short-term in Japan.
Ōizumi is a town located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. As of 31 August 2020, the town had an estimated population of 41,918 in 19,773 households, and a population density of 2300 persons per km². The total area of the town is 18.03 km2 (6.96 sq mi). Approximately 20 percent of the total population are foreign citizens, mostly Japanese Brazilians, who work at many factories in the town. Since 1990, Japanese descendants from foreign countries have been permitted to stay in Japan freely. It is estimated that 15 percent of the population speak Portuguese as their native language, and as of 2007, Ōizumi has the highest concentration of Brazilians of any city in Japan. More recently, Nepalese and other Asians have begun settling in the town.
Chinese people in Japan (在日中国人/華人) include any people self-identifying as ethnic Chinese or people possessing Chinese citizenship living in Japan. People aged 22 or older cannot possess dual-citizenship in Japan, so Chinese possessing Japanese citizenship typically no longer possess Chinese citizenship. The term "Chinese people" typically refers to the Han Chinese, the main ethnic group living in China (PRC), Taiwan (ROC) and Singapore. Officially, China (PRC) is home to 55 additional ethnic minorities, including people such as Tibetans, though these people might not self-identify as Chinese. Han Chinese people have had a long history in Japan as a minority.
Indonesians in Japan form Japan's largest immigrant group from a Muslim-majority country. As of December 2023, Japanese government figures recorded 149,101 legal residents of Indonesian nationality.
Vietnamese people in Japan form Japan's second-largest community of foreign residents ahead of Koreans in Japan and behind Chinese in Japan, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Justice. By in December 2023, there were 565,026 residents. The majority of the Vietnamese legal residents live in the Kantō region and Keihanshin area.
Brazilian schools in Japan are schools that specifically cater to Brazilians living in Japan. Many students who attend such schools are Fushūgaku (不就学), or children who do not attend public schooling. This is either due to parents wanting their children to attend school in their native language, or because they have little experience with or knowledge of Japanese culture or language.
There are in December 2023 49,114 Peruvians in Japan. The majority of them are descendants of earlier Japanese immigrants to Peru who have repatriated to Japan.
The Portuguese language is spoken in Asia by small communities either in regions which formerly served as colonies to Portugal, notably Macau and East Timor where the language is official albeit not widely spoken, Lusophone immigrants, notably the Brazilians in Japan or by some Afro-Asians and Luso-Asians. In Larantuka, Indonesia and Daman and Diu, India, Portuguese has a religious connotation, according to Damanese Portuguese-Indian Association, there are 10 – 12,000 Portuguese speakers in the territory.
Nepalis in Japan comprise migrants from Nepal to Japan, including temporary expatriates and permanent residents, as well as their locally born descendants. As of December 2023, there are about 176,336 Nepalis living in Japan, which makes them the largest South Asian community in the country.
Gosei is a Japanese diasporic term used in countries, particularly in North America and in South America, to specify the great-great-grandchildren of Japanese immigrants (Issei). The children of Issei are Nisei. Sansei are the third generation, and their offspring are Yonsei. The children of at least one Yonsei parent are called Gosei.
Among the several native ethnic groups of Japan, the predominant group are the Yamato Japanese, who trace their origins back to the Yayoi period and have held political dominance since the Asuka period. Other historical ethnic groups have included the Ainu, the Ryukyuan people, the Emishi, and the Hayato; some of whom were dispersed or absorbed by other groups. Ethnic groups that inhabited the Japanese islands during prehistory include the Jomon people and lesser-known Paleolithic groups. In more recent history, a number of immigrants from other countries have made their home in Japan. According to census statistics in 2018, 97.8% of the population of Japan are Japanese, with the remainder being foreign nationals residing in Japan. The number of foreign workers has been increasing dramatically in recent years, due to the aging population and the lack of labor force. A news article in 2018 states that approximately 1 out of 10 young people residing in Tokyo are foreign nationals.
Nigerians in Japan form a significant immigrant community. There are around 3,700 Nigerians living in the country. They mostly belong to the Nigerian Union in Japan, which is divided into sub-unions based on states of origin. The vast majority of Nigerians arrived in Japan from the mid-1980s onwards.
Hamamatsu Municipal Senior High School is a senior high school in Hamamatsu, Japan, operated by the city government.
Nikkei Brazilians at a Brazilian School in Japan: Factors Affecting Language Decisions and Education is a 2008 English-language book by Toshiko Sugino, published by the Keio University Press. The book discusses a Brazilian school located in Hamamatsu, Japan and the Brazilian community of that city. The book has a focus on how Brazilians in the city decide whether to use Brazilian schools or traditional Japanese public schools.
Sugino Yoshiko was a Japanese fashion educator and designer. She founded the Doreme dressmaking school and the Sugino Fashion College.
Arabs in Japan consist of Arab migrants that come to Japan, as well as their descendants. In December 2016, there were 6,037 Arabs living in Japan.
Japanese immigration in Brazil officially began in 1908. Currently, Brazil is home to the largest population of Japanese origin outside Japan, with about 1.5 million Nikkei (日系), term used to refer to Japanese and their descendants. A Japanese-Brazilian is a Brazilian citizen with Japanese ancestry. People born in Japan and living in Brazil are also considered Japanese-Brazilians.
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