BRAZIL-JAPAN:
One Hundred Years of
Migration
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS)
- One hundred years ago,
781 Japanese immigrants
arrived at the Brazilian
port of Santos on the
steamship Kasato Maru,
marking the start of a
labour flow that gave
rise to the ethnic group
with the highest levels
of education and per
capita income in Brazil
-- a migration that
reversed direction in
the 1980s.
Japanese Crown Prince
Naruhito, who arrived in
Brazil for the
celebrations of the
100th anniversary of the
start of Japanese
immigration, remarked
Wednesday in Brasilia on
the social ascent of the
Nikkei (Japanese
immigrants and their
descendants) in Brazil,
from the difficulties
faced by the first
migrants, who were hired
to work on coffee
plantations, to the
high-level positions
they hold today in many
areas of society.
President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva welcomed
Naruhito, and
underscored the
contribution made to
development in Brazil by
Japanese investment and
the strong prospects for
the expansion of
bilateral trade, in
areas like biofuels and
the adoption of Japanese
digital television
technology in Brazil.
A coin and a postage
stamp were launched
Wednesday to commemorate
100 years of Japanese
immigration.
The crown prince will
take part in
commemorative acts
Thursday and Friday in
Sao Paulo, Brazil’s
largest city, which is
home to the biggest
Nikkei community. He
will then tour Santos
and four other cities
with large
Japanese-Brazilian
populations, ending his
visit in Rio de Janeiro
on Jun. 24-25.
Brazil has the largest
Nikkei population in the
world: 1.5 million.
There are also 300,000
Japanese-Brazilians who
have emigrated to Japan
since the 1980s, known
as Dekasegi.
But that is "a
derogatory term,"
complained Paulo Yokota,
a renowned economist who
is a member of the
committee that organised
the centennial
celebrations.
He prefers to refer to
them as "Brazilians
living in Japan," who
are creating "a strong
community over there"
and "contributing to the
internationalisation of
that country."
The high profile
celebrations in Brazil
should help the younger
generations of Nikkei
gain a better
understanding of Japan
and Japanese culture,
with which "they are
only superficially
familiar," and encourage
the community to "serve
as a bridge" for
bilateral trade, which
it has not been doing,
said Yokota.
Economic relations
between Brazil and
Japan, which experienced
a major expansion in the
1970s, began to lose
momentum in the last
decade, while investment
from other foreign
countries intensified in
Brazil.
The descendants of
Japanese immigrants have
stood out in Brazil for
their strong performance
in education. "The
people of east Asia were
influenced by
Confucianism," which
explains the high
priority placed on
education, Yokota told
IPS.
But the development of
agriculture was the main
contribution of Japanese
immigrants to Brazil, in
his view. Today, the
Nikkei stand out in
different areas, with
the exception of those
that require "the gift
of gab," which they
don't generally have, he
said.
That is the explanation,
he said, for the scant
Nikkei presence in
politics, in contrast
with the leadership
positions they hold in
the technological,
business, professional
and academic spheres.
In Peru, which has a
much smaller Japanese
community, a son of
Japanese immigrants,
Alberto Fujimori, served
as president from 1990
to 2000.
In Brazil, there have
been few ministers and
legislators of Japanese
descent. But in the
United States, their
participation in
politics has been even
more limited, according
to Jeffrey Lesser, a
history professor at
Emory University in the
southeastern U.S. state
of Georgia.
Lesser has researched
immigration in Brazil
and recently published a
book, "A Discontented
Diaspora: Japanese
Brazilians and the
Meanings of Ethnic
Militancy, 1960-1980,"
on the Nikkei and
Dekasegi.
It is curious that many
Nikkei politicians in
Brazil are descended
from people in Okinawa,
the Japanese island
whose people suffer a
certain degree of
discrimination in their
own country. "The
Okinawans are like
Brazilians, they come
from a tropical land
where they like to
dance, drink and eat
spicy foods," was an
explanation that Lesser
heard in his interviews.
"They use a stereotype
about Brazilians to
identify themselves as
more Brazilian than
other Japanese," the
professor told IPS.
According to his
assessment, the biggest
contribution by Japanese
immigrants to Brazil was
"to change the idea of
what it is to be
Brazilian," by
incorporating "a group
that is neither white
nor black," he said.
The descendants of Jews,
Arabs or Europeans can
largely blend in with
other Brazilians,
because of their
appearance and in many
cases their names, but
that is not true of
Brazilians of Japanese
descent, who have
distinct physical
features, said Lesser.
In an earlier book,
"Negotiating National
Identity: Immigrants,
Minorities, and the
Struggle for Ethnicity
in Brazil", Lesser
pointed to the strong
cultural rejection faced
by Japanese and Arab
immigrants in Brazil,
where political and
intellectual leaders
regarded them as
culturally "non-assimilable."
But there were also
strong views in their
favour, and that
contradiction or
ambiguity is still
reflected today in
Brazil, where the Nikkei
have the image of being
"the best or the worst
Brazilians," he said.
The high educational
attainment and income
levels of
Japanese-Brazilians
awaken both envy and
praise from the
Brazilian elite,
commented Lesser, who
recalled graffiti that
he saw a few years ago:
"Secure your place at
the University of Sao
Paulo tomorrow: kill a
Japanese today".
The Dekasegi are
repeating the general
pattern of immigrants:
while most of them plan
to save up enough money
in Japan to return to
Brazil and set up a
business of their own, a
majority end up settling
down in their new
country.
Many of them believe
they can transform
Japanese culture and
"save the Japanese from
themselves," by bringing
them a touch of "Brazilianness"
or a more creative,
fun-loving and relaxed
way of living, in order
to mellow that "closed,
cold and overworked
society," said Lesser. |
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