Japanese Brazilians and Their Brazilian Identity in Japan

Abstract

Within a year and half after the global recession began in September 2008, one quarter of Brazilian residents in Japan had returned to Brazil, which critically damaged the once thriving ethic Brazilian businesses in Japan’s Brazil Towns. Brazilian dekassegui workers largely married among themselves, and gender subordination often came to be reproduced and even strengthened in the Brazilian diaspora. Over the years, due to Japan’s prolonged recession, the Brazilian population in Japan came to be dispersed. Japanese Brazilians remaining in Japan became increasingly nationalistic as Brazilians, imagining their homeland for its bright future, with the World Cup (2014) and Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (2016). While being positioned collectively as Brazilians, Japanese Brazilians have not come to form a homogenized Brazilian identity in Japan and continued to position themselves individually over “the face” and the definition of Nikkeiness.

Diaspora boundaries and racial democracy: Nationalist discourses on Judaism and Zionism in Brazil

“…Japanese Brazilians, for example, were often accused of being a fifth column and frequently harassed by the authorities. Among other restrictions, they were prohibited from publishing even Portuguese‐language journals or speaking Japanese in public (Nishida, 2018, p. 28).…”

Miragens do Japão

“…A representação dos costumes culinários japoneses e sua influência na formação da cultura nipo-brasileira e, por extensão, na própria cultura brasileira, não têm sido ainda suficientemente analisadas. 4 Embora haja estudos de importância no âmbito da história (YAMAMOTO, 1984;SAKURAI, 2008), da imigração japonesa no Brasil (ANDO, 1976;LESSER, 2003LESSER, , 2007OKAMOTO, 2008), da imigração nipo-brasileira no Japão (GOTO, 2007;LESSER, 2010;CÓRDOVA QUERO, 2010;NISHIDA, 2018;LÓPEZ-CALVO, 2018) e pesquisas relevantes sobre a mulher nipo-brasileira (NOMURA, 1991;NISHIDA, 2000) e sobre os personagens japoneses na literatura brasileira (NAKASATO, 2010), não há ainda estudos específicos sobre o importante papel da comida na produção cultural da comunidade japonesa na diáspora. Esta pesquisa aporta uma análise aprofundada e um novo olhar sobre as representações da comida e as práticas culinárias dos imigrantes japoneses no Brasil em relação à memória e à etnicidade dessa comunidade.…”