This page has the following sections:
Japan failing to support young Brazilians Stories of young Brazilians in Izumo City, Shimano. NHK World, 29 Feb 2020.
Japanese Brazilian A Japanese Brazilian (nikkei burajiru-jin in romaji Japanese writing; nipo-brasileiro in Portuguese) is a Brazilian citizen of Japanese ethnic origin, or a Japanese immigrant living in Brazil. Wikipedia.
Brazilians in Japan Looks at the migration history of Brazilians in Japan, integration and identity issues, religion, education and employment. Wikipedia.
Japan's trial run for migrant workers This article looks at whether migrant workers could help solve an imminent labour shortage caused by Japan's population crisis. It focuses particularly on Nikkei Brazilan immigrants, who were encouraged to emigrate to Japan from the 1990s, and on Hamamatsu city in Shizuoka that has a large Nikkei Brazilian population. BBC News, 21 November, 2007.
Life as Dekkasseguis: The Brazilian Community in Japan by Erika Calalzans. This article looks at the numbers of Nikkeijin Brazilians in Japan, the effect of the economic crisis in Japan on them, and other problems they face. Asia Pacific Human Rights Center, Dec 2009.
Current Issues regarding the Brazilian Migration to Japan By Lili Kawamura, Discover Nikkei: Japanese migrants and their descendants, 1 Feb 2008.
Roving vans offer banking, food from home for Japan Brazilians Japan's nearly 200,000-strong Brazilian immigrant community live in pockets scattered across the middle of the country, clustered around auto parts factories or warehouses where they have jobs. To reach them, Brazilian companies have adopted mobile businesses, sending vans around the countryside selling traditional pastries, Portuguese language magazines and other goods from home. This article focuses mainly on Oizumi in Gunma. For more on Japanese-Brazilians in Oizumi, see below. Asahi Shimbun, 21 Jun 2017.
Support 21 / さぽうと21 is an volunteer organisation based in Meguro, Tokyo, that provides counselling about living in Japan, scholarships for education, and Japanese lessons for refugees, nikkeijin (descendants of Japanese) and returnees, including those from China, living in Japan. It has developed out of the Association for Aid and Relief which was started in 1979 to help refugees to Japan from Indochina and which has now become an international aid organisation.
Immigrant teaches peers: Brazilian helps other newcomers to Japan Brazilian-born Elisa Kemmisaki, 22, is a newly assigned English language teacher at Ushioda Junior High School in Yokohama. She also helps pupils in the "kokusai kyoshitsu" (international classroom) pursue their study of Japanese and other subjects. Japan Times, June 18, 2003.
Japanese-Brazilian families: a failure to communicate This article looks at the problems of communication at home caused when the children of Nikkei ( Japanese-Brazilian) parents in Japan attend Japanese schools and grow up speaking Japanese, not Portuguese, as their first language. It also argues that learning their Portuguese mother tongue is important for positive identity formation and positive learning experiences for these children and looks at some policies to support the learning of Portuguese by Japanese-Brazilian children in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. Japan Times, Aug. 1, 2008.
Brazilian schools losing students Some Brazilian schools in Japan have seen drops in Japanese-Brazilian students as the global recession starts to hit provincial economies where many of the schools are located, forcing parents to give up their jobs, find other employment or return home. The Japan Times, Dec. 2, 2008.
Brazilian elementary school. Hamamatsu, Japan 2002 Children who's families intend to return to Brazil usually are studying at Brazilian schools. Choosing between Japanese and Brazilian education systems is one of the hardest tasks Brazilian parents face in Japan. Discover Nikkei.
200 Brazilian Schools’ Students Able to Earn Japanese High School Diplomas A correspondence-based high school in Gunma Prefecture has decided to tie up with a school for Japanese-Brazilian students next year so the bilingual students can receive Japanese diplomas, its officials said Saturday. Japan Probe.
Language, not labor, key for Japanese-Brazilians This article discusses the problems that lack of Japanese ability causes Nikkeijin Brazilians in Japan, criticizes companies who emply Nikkeijin for not supporting language education for them, but also looks at positive action by one company, Yamaha IM Co, and by Aichi Prefecture. Japan Times, 23 Aug, 2008.
New link added 09 May 2018 Bow, don’t hug and kiss, when at school in Japan, Brazil kids learn Famed Brazilian cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa has lent his talents to creating a colorful picture book that shows children from Brazil what school life is like in Japan, and how different customs are in this country. He arranged for 120 copies in Japanese and Portuguese to be presented to the Konan board of education as the city has a sizable Brazalian community. Asahi Shimbun, 6 April 2018.
>>> For Brazilian schools in Japan see Ethnic schools and education (Brazilian, Korean, etc) >>>
Foreign workers of Japanese ancestry deserve better treatment This editorial criticises the government's program, started in 2009, to pay South American workers of Japanese descent in Japan to return to go back to their original countries when the economy worsened, and the lack of a decision about when to allow those workers to return. It concludes: "Japan should accept foreign workers not as mere manpower but as people. " Asahi Shimbun, 23 Sep 2013.
Japan Pays Foreign Workers to Go Home Looks at the decision by the Japanese government to pay Nikkei, mostly Japanese-Brazilian, immigrants to return to the Latin American countries they came from, and discusses the arguments for and against this policy, especially the rule that Nikkei who agree to leave won't be able to return to work in Japan again in the future. New York Times/ International Herald Tribune, 23 April, 2009.
'Golden parachutes' mark failure of race-based policy by Debito Arudou. An article criticizing the new Japanese government policy of giving Nikkei immigrants ¥300,000 if they leave Japan, now that unemployment is rising in Japan. It also looks at the affect of the current economic crisis on all foreign workers in Japan. And it reviews the recent history of Japanese immigration policy, especially the policies started in the 1990s to attract Nikkei immigrants to Japan and to bring in Chinese people, supposedly as 'trainees' to learn skills, but in reality as cheap, unskilled labour. Japan Times, April 7, 2009.
Foreign workers of Japanese ancestry deserve better treatment This editorial criticises the government's program, started in 2009, to pay South American workers of Japanese descent in Japan to return to go back to their original countries when the economy worsened, and the lack of a decision about when to allow those workers to return. It concludes: "Japan should accept foreign workers not as mere manpower but as people. " Asahi Shimbun, 23 Sep 2013.
Recommendations of Overseas Emigration Council Future Policy Regarding Cooperation with Overseas Communities of Nikkei A report for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dec 11, 2000. It also has recommendations on Japanese language education for Nikkei and on the employment of Nikkei in Japan.
Oizumi, Gunma from Wikipedia
Japan Mulls Importing Foreign Workers An article that focuses on Oizumi and emphasizes problems both for the Brazilian community there and between the Brazilian population and Japanese community. Washington Post, 20 Jan, 2007.
The Brazilians winning in Japan This article looks at people of Japanese ancestry in Brazil and Japanese-Brazilians in Japan, and focuses on 'Brazil town' in Oizumi. BBC News, 17 Jul, 2015.
Brazilian schools overlooked in radiation survey An article about how the Council in Oizumi forgot to include theree Brazilan schools in a survey of radiation at schools in the city. The article suggest this is an example of how the Brazilian community there is always overlooked. Majirox News, 11 Feb, 2011.
Gunma’s ‘Brazil Town’ offers a carnival of cuisine An article about Brazilian restaurants and shops in Oizumi. Japan Times, 1 Jul, 2014.
大泉町多文化共生コミュニティセンター (Oizumimachi Multicultural Co-existence Community Center (In Japanese and Brazilian).
New link added 09 May 2018 How migrants are changing the face of a factory and faraway city Izumo city has a population of 170,000 or so, and resident Brazilians number around 2,000, double the figure three years ago. Most of them work at Izumo Murata Manufacturing Co., a subsidiary of Kyoto-based Murata Manufacturing Co., a leading producer of electronic components. Asahi Shimbun, 11 May 2017.
Toyota City: How it became Japan's Detroit "There are many ways to measure how important the car maker Toyota is to the Japanese economy, and how hard its lost year has hit both the country as a whole and this once-booming city that bears its name." Globe and Mail, 17 Jul. 2009.
An Enclave of Brazilians Is Testing Insular Japan "TOYOTA CITY, Japan — Facing labor shortages back in 1990 but ever wary of allowing in foreigners, Japan made an exception for Japanese-Brazilians. With their Japanese roots, names and faces, these children and grandchildren of Japanese emigrants to Brazil would fit more easily in a society fiercely closed to outsiders, or so the reasoning went." New York Times, November 1, 2008.
Brazilian community in the Homi Danchi, Toyota City "The Homi public housing development ('Danchi' in Japanese) in the Homigaoka area of Toyota City, in Aichi Prefecture, is now home to a large population of Brazilian immigrants. They mainly came to the area to work at Toyota and related manufacturing jobs, but are now often the first to lose those jobs due to the worsening recession."
Mutantfrog Travelogue, March 10, 2010
Brazilian community in Toyota City "The Homi public housing development ("Danchi" in Japanese) in the Homigaoka area of Toyota City, in Aichi Prefecture, is now home to a large population of Brazilian immigrants. They mainly came to the area to work at Toyota and related manufacturing jobs, but are now often the first to lose those jobs due to the worsening recession." flickr from Yahoo, 01 Mar, 2009.
Homi "Situated at the top of Homi-ga-oka is the Homi Public Housing Estate which consists of over 40 apartment blocks, shops and schools... Like most Public Housing Estates in Japan today many of the residents are old age pensioners, some of whom live alone. Many of the apartments are uninhabited. The Homi Public Housing Estate has a population of around 11,000 and more than 4,000 of these are Brazilian immigrants." 2009
Nikkei Brazilians and Local Residents: A Study of the H Housing Complex in Toyota City "This article provides some insights on the relationship between Nikkei Brazilians and local residents in Toyota City, the center of Japan’s automobile industry." Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2000.
City strives to school foreign youth: Toyota, Brazilians offer their own types of user-friendly education This article discusses the education of Nikkei Brazilian children Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, which has one of the largest concentrations of Brazilians in Japan, totaling 4,972 as of the end of 1998. It looks at public schools and at the Escola Alegria de Saber, or the Joy of Knowledge School, a private Brazilian school which has set up branches in other parts of Aichi. Japan Times, May 9, 2000.
Forgotten In Japão: Education in the Brazilian Dekasegi Community A film about the Brazilian-Japanese community in Toyota City by Sam Holden
Little Brazil: Hamamatsu and the Japan-Brazil Year of Exchange 2008 "Walk through Hamamatsu and you will quickly notice that it has a rather different flavour from most other Japanese cities...Venture into Hamamatsu’s nightclubs and you will find Brazilians, Westerners and Japanese rubbing shoulders to Brazilian beats." Newsletter, Hamamatsu City.
Helping Brazilian kids master local life Japanese-Brazilian Tetsuyoshi Kodama proudly serves as a bridge between the Japanese and Japanese-Brazilian communities in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. Japan Times, Aug. 23, 2011.
Multicultural Coexistence in Hamamatsu City: Challenges after 2008 Economic Crisis This report looks particularly at the effect of the economic crisis on working conditions for Japanese-Brazilaians in Hamamatsu and on education for Japanese-Brazialian children. It includes a summary in Japanese
Lonely Swallows Lonely Swallows is a documentary that follows the struggles of Japanese-Brazilian children living in Hamamatsu.
In Traditionally Insular Japan, A Rare Experiment in Diversity An artcile about the Japanese-Brazilian and Japanese-Peruvian communities in Hamamatsu and the Mundo de Alegra (World of Happiness) school set up for Brazilian and Peruvian children in Hamamatsu. Washington Post, 6 Oct, 2007.
New link added 24 Apr 2021: Foreign children slipping through the cracks of Japan's education system An NHK survey found that The study found that out of 120,000 foreign children between the ages of 6 and 14 living in Japan about 8,400 are believed to have not attended school. This article looks at the situation of some of these children who are attending a nursery school in Hamamatsu City even though they are 6 years old or over. NHK World. 17 Apr 2019.
Tsuda, T. (2009) ‘Japanese-Brazilian ethnic return migration and the making of Japan’s newest immigrant minority’ in M. Weiner, (Ed). Japan's minorities: the illusion of homogeneity. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge. Available from: Chuo Library 開架 301.45/J35.
Yamanaka, K. (2003), '"I will go home, but when?": Labour migration and circular diaspora formation by Japanese Brazilians in Japan', in M. Douglass & G. S. Roberts (Eds). Japan and global migration: foreign workers and the advent of a multicultural society. London; New York: Routledge. Available from Chuo Library総合政策 325.252/J35 & Mike. Sections on: world systems theory and migration systems theory; the history of labour migration from Japan to Brazil and Brazil to Japan, 1880s to 1990s; the demography and social structure of the Nikkei Brazilian population in Japan; and Nikkejin as transnational and return migrants.
Sellek, Y. (1997). 'Nikkeijin: The phenomenon of return migration', in M. Weiner (Ed). (1997). Japan's minorities: the illusion of homogeneity. 1st Edition. London: Routledge. Available from: Chuo Library 総合政策 301.45/J35 & Mike. Looks at the hisotry of foerign migration to Japan in general; at the inflow of Nikkeijin since the beginning og the 1990s, at the impact of Nikkeijin migrants on Japanese society and the effect of this inflow on understandings of Japanese identity and immigration policy.
Feminized Migration, Community Activism and Grassroots Transnationalization in Japan by Keiko Yamanaka In the absence of governmental policy to incorporate immigrants into the nation’s political and legal structure, Brazilian children growing up in Japan have encountered great difficulty in acquiring an adequate education. In response, a group of Brazilian mothers founded an organization, ALA Brasil, to help their children cope with study in a public school in Hamamatsu, Japan. 2003.