Japanese Brazilian
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Japanese_Brazilian".

content
Flag of Japan Japanese Brazilian Flag of Brazil
Nipo Brasileiro
Juniti SaitoJuliana Imai

Juniti Saito • Juliana Imai
Hugo HoyamaFernanda Takai
Hugo Hoyama • Fernanda Takai
Luiz Gushiken

Luiz Gushiken
Total population

c. 1.5 million
0.5% of Brazil's population
Regions with significant populations
Japan:
   275,000[1]
Language(s)
Predominantly Portuguese.
Minorities speak Japanese.
Religion(s)
Predominantly Roman Catholic[2], Buddhism, Shintoism[3]
Related ethnic groups
Japanese American, Japanese Peruvian

A Japanese Brazilian (日系ブラジル人 in Japanese ; nipo-brasileiro in Portuguese) is a Brazilian citizen of Japanese ethnic origin, or a Japanese immigrant living in Brazil. Brazil is the Latin American country that has received the most ethnic Japanese immigrants, as well having the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, numbering an estimate of more than 1.5 million (including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity),[4] considerably bigger than that of the 1.2 million in the United States.[5]

The largest concentrations of Japanese in Brazil are mostly found in the state of São Paulo and in the state of Paraná.

Contents

History

The first Japanese immigrants (791 people - mostly farmers) came to Brazil in 1908 on the Kasato Maru from the Japanese port of Kobe, moving to Brazil in search of better living conditions. Many of them became laborers on coffee farms. At the time, Brazil was experiencing a shortage of farm workers and turned to European immigrants and then to an influx of Japanese workers to satisfy this demand.

A poster used in Japan to attract immigrants to Brazil.
A poster used in Japan to attract immigrants to Brazil.

Mitsuyo Maeda arrived in Brazil in 1914, bringing the martial art of judo to Brazil. Maeda became naturalised as Otávio Mitsuyo Maeda,[6] and became a great promoter of Japanese immigration to Brazil. The judo that he brought evolved differently in Brazil, and became known as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

As in other parts of the world that experienced this type of Japanese influx, the first and second generation immigrants were referred to as issei and nisei, respectively. Some Japanese in the country married Brazilians, a pattern that still continues, and for that matter, some Japanese Brazilians are also of European, African or Amerindian descent, contributing to the highly diversified ethnic population of Brazil.

World War II

During World War II, Brazil severed relations with Japan. Japanese newspapers and teaching in schools were banned, leaving Portuguese as the only option for Japanese descendants. Newspapers in German or Italian were also advised to cease production, as Germany and Italy were Japan's allies in the war. When the conflict was over, many Japanese refugees decided to settle in Brazil, thus creating a large Japanese community. Second or higher generation Brazilians are often monolingual in Portuguese. Some Japanese schools provide education in Japanese and Portuguese.

A Japanese-Brazilian woman during a festival in Curitiba.
A Japanese-Brazilian woman during a festival in Curitiba.

The 1980s

During the 1980s, the Japanese economic situation improved and achieved stability. Many Japanese Brazilians (including some of mixed descent) went to Japan as contract workers due to economic and political problems in Brazil, and they were termed "Dekasegi". Working visas were offered to Brazilian Dekasegis in 1990, encouraging more Japanese immigration from Brazil.

Today

The influx of Japanese descendants from Brazil to Japan was and continues to be large: There are over 275,000 Japanese Brazilians living in Japan today.

The Kasato Maru
The Kasato Maru

They also constitute the largest number of Portuguese speakers in Asia, greater than those of formerly Portuguese East Timor, Macau and Goa combined. Nevertheless, Brazil maintains its status as home to the largest Japanese community outside of Japan. The Japanese community in Brazil (notably in São Paulo's Liberdade district) is very large and deeply rooted. In terms of religion, most Japanese Brazilians are Christians, notably Roman Catholic, although some 33% are followers of Zen Buddhism (Japanese became the first Buddhist and Shinto settlers in Brazil).


Japanese immigration to Brazil
Source: (IBGE)[7]
 
Period
Ethnic group 1904-1913 1914-1923 1924-1933 1945-1949 1950-1954 1955-1959
Japanese 11,868 20,398 110,191 12 5,447 28,819



Miscegenation

Miscegenation in the Japanese-Brazilian community[8]
Generation Mixed-race (%)
First 0%
Second 6%
Third 42%
Fourth 61%

A more recent phenomenon in Brazil are intermarriages between Japanese Brazilians and non-Japanese. Though people of Japanese descent make up only 0.7% of the country's population, they are the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, with over 1.5 million people. In the areas with large numbers of Japanese, such as São Paulo and Paraná, since the 1970s large numbers of Japanese-descendants started to get marry to other ethnic groups. Although interracial relationships are not well accepted in Japan, immigrants in Brazil seem to be more acceptable to the miscegenation of Brazilian culture.

Nowadays, among the 1.5 million Brazilians of Japanese descent, 40% have some non-Japanese ancestry. This numbers reaches only 6% among the children of Japanese immigrants, but 61% among the great-grandchildren of Japanese immigrants.

Notable persons

Liberdade, São Paulo
Liberdade, São Paulo

Arts

Politics

Sport

Research

See also

Notes

  1. ^ MOFA: Japan-Brazil Relations
  2. ^ Adital - Brasileiros no Japão
  3. ^ Brazil
  4. ^ 1[1]
  5. ^ 2[2]
  6. ^ Virgílio, Stanlei (2002). Conde Koma - O invencível yondan da história (in Portuguese). Editora Átomo, pp. 9. ISBN 858758524X. 
  7. ^ Brasil 500 anos
  8. ^ Template:Cite University

External links

v • d • e
Japanese diaspora
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Americas
v • d • e
Demographics of Brazil
Socioeconomic
issues
Ethnic groups
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