Meiji Gakuin Course No. 3505/3506
Minority and Marginal
Groups of Contemporary
Japan
Tom Gill
Lecture No. 10
Nikkeijin
日系人
Japan’s 3rd & 5th largest foreign minorities
China
Korea
Brazil
Phils
Peru
Make that “4th and 5th”!
The government’s
immigration data for
2012 was recenrtly
released. The Brazilian
population continued
to fall, and had slipped
below the population
of Filipinos.
RANK
1
2
3
4
5
COUNTRY
China
Korea
Philippines
Brazil
Peru
End of 2012
A pair of instant ethnic minorities
The data clearly shows almost no
Brazilians and Peruvians in Japan in
1986, a few in 1989, and then a whole
lot in 1992, further increasing after
that.
How come? To understand, we need to
examine 120 years of history.
Nowadays people think of Japan as a
destination for migrants. It has not
always been so. For about 70 years
(1895-1965) Japan sent many
emigrants to other countries.
Migrant 移住者
Emigrant （自国から,他国への）移住者
Immigrant （外国からの）移住者.
2.8 million ethnic Japanese
Japan’s Diaspora
Country
Brazil
USA
Philippines
Peru
Canada
Argentina
Nikkei pop.
1,500,000
1,200,000
120,000
90,000
80,000
30,000
Japan’s Diaspora cont.
Country
Australia
Micronesia
Mexico
UK
Bolivia
Germany
Nikkei pop.
20,000
20,000
15,000
15,000
10,000
10,000
Start of Japanese emigration
th
in the 12 century – to the
Philippines, then Thailand
(small, ancient communities)
But major emigration only
th
started in the late 19 century,
after the Meiji restoration.
1908 Kasato Maru
arrives in Sao
Paolo: start of
Japanese migration
to Brazil
2008: Official government celebration
in Brasilia, capital of Brazil
Centenary (100周年) characters
Karina Eiko
Nakahara
Miss Japan-Brazil
(JapanesePortugueseItalian Brazilian)
Sabrina Sato
Japanese-Swiss-Lebanese-Brazilian TV idol
Japanese emigration, 18681943
1868-1898
1899-1924
1925-1931
1932-1942
1943-1943
TOTAL
North
Central Southeast Manchuria TOTAL
America, & South Asia
Hawaii
America
89,962
0
0
0
89,962
302,772
70,588
37,060
0 410,420
14,417
82,885
25,376
0 122,678
4,258
91,063
25,740
180,534 301,595
0
0
0
89,473
89,473
411,409 244,536
88,176
270,007 1,014,128
Roth 2002: 21
State-sponsored migration
Some people decide to emigrate
from their own concerns. But
most Japanese emigrants left
the country as part of a
government-organized program.
Private enterprise too
Private companies like
Nanbei Takushoku 南米
拓殖 bought up land and
tried to sell it to migrant
Japanese. Cruise
companies also made
profits from taking them
out there.
Widely
scattered
Nikkei
population in
South
America
A mission of mercy?
Emigrants to South America were encouraged
to go by flattering them that they were being
“called for” by governments of South
America to “improve” those countries. To a
certain extent, this was true. Settlers from
Japan were indeed welcomed by some
governments hoping that they would
improve the economy. But the big lure for
most settlers was land.
The lure of land
Settlers were promised land and financial
assistance from the Japanese
government. They would create a little
piece of Japan in the tropics, protected
by fences from the poverty around them.
Land-hungry second and third sons
rushed to the boats.
Some also went to work for wages
Some Japanese went abroad as contract
workers (契約労働者), to work on a big
construction project. For example the
railway from Manila to Baguio in the
Philippines was largely built by Japanese
contract workers, hired by the Americans
(the colonial power). Japanese had a
reputation for working harder than any
one else in the world!
A shock on arrival
When they arrived at their new
“settlements,” they often found they
were knee-deep in mud and nothing
else. The support and help promised
by the Japanese government was not
there. It was sink or swim. Many
would-be farmers sank into poverty.
“Promised heaven, given hell”
In 2000, 177 Nikkeijin from Dominica sue the
government of Japan for making false promises
about the lives awaiting them on arrival.
"Japan's government advertised its immigration
project with the phrase 'A paradise in the
Caribbean Sea'. "That's why we all decided to go
there to realize our dreams of farming on vast,
rich land."
-- Toru Takegama, leader of legal action against
government, interviewed by Reuter, 2006.
"But it was a far cry from a paradise.
It was a hellish nightmare."
From 1956-59, 1,319 Japanese farmers travelled to
the Dominican Republic – a month by boat. Ｔhey
were confined to settlements surrounded by
barbed wire and patrolled by armed guards in
areas bordering Haiti. They were not given land as
promised, only the right to cultivate land. The area
was only 1/3 of that promised and it was bad land.
In 1961 President Trujillo was assassinated and
civil war broke out.
Barbed wire 有刺鉄線 Assassinate 暗殺する
In July 2006 the Japanese government
settles the lawsuit, paying $17,000 to
each plaintiff and $10,000 each to nonplaintiff migrants; Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi makes a formal
statement apologising for the "immense
suffering due to the government's
response at the time".
Plaintiff 原告
Pioneers in the Tropics
The Political Organization of
Japanese in an Immigrant
Community in Brazil
Philip Staniford
London, Athlone Press, 1971
Tomé Açu
Staniford describes the creation of a new
colony in the jungles of north-eastern Brazil,
near the mouth of the Amazon river.
Launched in 1929 by the Nantaku company
(Nanbei Takushoku Kabushiki-gaisha 南米拓
殖株式会社), financially backed by the
famous Kanegafuchi 鐘ヶ淵 textile company.
1929-1938: 352 families and 28 single men
arrive (p. 16). Most are poor non-firstborn
sons from Kyushu.
Tome
Acu
Setbacks
The company encouraged settlers to grow cacao,
but the the crops were bad. The company lent
settlers money, which many could not pay back.
The global economic depression stopped the
flow of money from Japan. Tropical diseases
killed some of the settlers.
1942: Only 49 families left out of 352. Those with
money, or enough healthy family members,
moved to better land. Only the poorest
remained.
1942: Enemy aliens
World War II: Brazil declares war on the Axis
powers (Germany, Italy, Japan), and Tome
Açu becomes a giant open-air concentration
camp. Farmers are not allowed to leave and
cannot sell their crops.
Some of the Japanese immigrants who had left
are forced to return. They speak good
Portuguese and become post-war leaders.
(p.18)
1947: Red pepper revolution
The settlers discover that they can grow red
peppers and sell them for a good price. All the
Japanese farmers switch to pepper farming.
Farming becomes more profitable, but there is a
labour shortage.
1953-1962 Second wave of immigrants from
Japan. 360 men, most with families. They want
to escape poverty in war-shattered Japan. They
work as contract labourers for the farmers, who
need more workers.
1959: Tome Açu becomes a town
… with a population of 5,000, including many
Brazilians working for Japanese farmers. It
has government, hospitals, school system etc.
Some friction between first-wave immigrants
(employers, expecting loyalty and respect
from workers) and second-wave immigrants
(workers, expecting democratic rights after
experiencing the radical political atmosphere
in Japan just after the war).
Japanese school in Brazil
Personality of migrants
Less group-oriented, place more value on selfreliance. Believe they have made a sacrifice
(gisei) by leaving over-populated Japan. They
have been “thinned out” (mabiki imin).
Excluded from inheritance by Japanese system
of eldest-son succession. “Strangers start with
brothers” (tanin wa kyodai kara).
Some pre-war migrants felt betrayed by Nantaku
company and Japan. Some post-war migrants
had previously migrated to Korea, Manchuria etc.
and had even worse experiences.
Effect of harsh environment
“Of necessity the immigrants had to band
together in an alien world… Their
relations among themselves and with the
Brazilians are peaceful… on the other
hand, the strong emphasis on individual
effort and self-reliance undercuts cooperative activities… the immigrant
believes that everyone else is corrupted
by self-interest.” (p.26)
The Immigrants as Marginal Japanese
“They were men who did not inherit enough
land or money to remain as farmers… they
came from the lower economic strata, to
whom group membership gives minimal
rewards… they had already chosen to opt out
of their native environment to come to
Brazil…
“Freedom of choice, once exercised, is not
readily surrendered.” p. 186
Ultimate success
Like most Japanese settlers in South
America, the people of Tome Açu
overcame broken government promises
and a very harsh environment, and
eventually became fairly prosperous
farmers, employing many Brazilian
workers. The Japanese today are a
respected minority in South America.
A very enduring identity
The migrants are still called “Japones”
in Brazil 100 years after the first
ones arrived, with some families
now in their 5th or 6th generation.
But in Japan, they are referred to as
“Nikkeijin,” lit. “Japan-related
people” – not “Nihonjin” (Japanese)
Also a complex identity
“Dedicated with very great admiration to those
Japanese immigrants who think they have
failed because they did not achieve what
they desired in the new world. They left so
little in Japan to accomplish what they feel is
less in Brazil. May their children prosper and
build on what they did accomplish at such a
high price.”
– Staniford, dedication.
Nikkeijin Identity
Positive
image:
Japanese
used to sell
German
cars
The 52nd Convention of Nikkei
and Japanese Abroad
In Tokyo, October 26th-28th, 2011.
Japanese Overseas Migration
Museum, Yokohama
海
外
移
住
資
料
館
Fruit float
from
Portland
Oregon
pride in
agricultural
innovation
6 generation Nikkei family
… at a giant family gathering in Hawaii
Takuwan from
Hawaii
“A sweet treat
th
from your 50
state”
沢庵 yellow
pickled radish
Fast forward 30 years…
Immigration law reform
The fundamental contradiction at the
heart of Japanese immigration policy:
1. Immigration law bans unskilled
workers from entering the country.
BUT
2. That is precisely the kind of worker
Japan needs.
Why?
Because Japanese are over-educated – they
have nearly all gone to senior high school, and
more than half to college. They do not want
to work in dirty, badly-paid jobs like cleaning
out sewage pipes or collecting garbage. They
want to work for big companies, not small
companies. Also most of them do not want to
work in agriculture – they prefer city life to
country life.
So…..
…. In the 1980s, when the bubble economy
was booming, there was an acute labor
shortage for “3K” jobs, in agriculture,
factory work and sanitation.
3K Kitsui, kitanai, kiken きつい、汚い、危険
3D Demanding, dirty, dangerous
(There was also a shortage of highlyskilled computer programmers and IT
engineers. But that kind of work can be
sent out to foreign countries (e.g.
China, India) and sent back using the
internet. However, a broken sewer
pipe in Tokyo has to be mended by
someone in Tokyo. The lowest level
work is the hardest kind to send offshore.)
Sewer pipe 下水管
But still the government
hesitated to ease
immigration restrictions on
unskilled workers… why?
hesitate 躊躇する ease 緩和する
The Fear:
Foreigners will disrupt the harmonious
Japanese society based on shared ethnicity,
shared culture, shared language… shared
blood.
Low-level, unskilled workers will be especially
dangerous. They may have criminal or violent
tendencies!
They may pollute the purity of Japanese society.
(cf. Kegare lecture).
disrupt 混乱させる harmonious 調和のとれた
2 solutions
1. Creation of the foreign apprentice scheme
Foreigners are allowed in to study
agriculture and industry at Japanese worksites. They are also allowed to work parttime to earn money to cover living expenses
in Japan. After they finish a 2-year
apprenticeship, they can work for another
year… and then go home.
Apprentice 見習い
Widely criticized!
Many people argue that the “apprentice”
scheme is really just an excuse to bring
in a lot of unskilled workers, pay them
very badly (because they are supposed
to be learning, not just working), and
then send them back home before there
is a risk they will pollute the purity of
Japanese society.
Pollute 汚す purity 潔白
2 solutions
2. Issue working visas to unskilled
workers… if they have some Japanese
blood in them.
Thereby preserving the blood-purity of
Japanese society, and using bloodconnection as a way to limit the number
of workers admitted.
The visas issued were Nihonjin
haigusha 日本人配偶者 (spouse
or child of Japanese citizen) or
teijusha 定住者 (long-term
resident), for periods of 6
months to 3 years. There were
no restrictions on work.
2nd generation (nisei) got 3 year visas,
3rd generation (sansei) 1 year visas.
4th generation (yonsei) and below
had to prove they had family
members in Japan to be a guarantor.
Roth 25-6
“The closer you are to your
Japanese roots, the more
we trust you!”
Although they have Japanese names and
looked Japanese, the language they
think and speak in is usually Portuguese
or Spanish. They are Japanese in name,
but bring with them the customs and
individualism of South America – not
always welcome in Japan.
An instant ethnic minority
South American Nikkeijin registered as
residents in Japan
Country 1986
Brazil
2,135
Peru
553
Argentina
359
Bolivia
126
Paraguay
122
TOTAL
3,295
1988
4,159
864
627
150
282
6,082
1990
1992
1994
1996
56,429 147,803 159,619 189,781
10,279 31.051 35,382 36,616
2,656
3,289
2,796
3,035
496
2,387
2,917
2,811
672
1,174
1,129
1,235
70,532 185.704 201,843 233,478
Source: Kaigai Nikkeijin Kyokai, 1997, in Roth 2002 p.3
1998 Anna Bortz case
In 1998 television journalist Anna
Bortz filed a law suit against a
jewelery shop in Hamamatsu
(Shizuoka prefecture) after the
owner tried to push her out the
door upon learning that she was
Brazilian. When she asked why,
he showed her a police document
warning shop proprietors to do
their utmost to prevent theft. To
him, this meant expelling
foreigners. Bortz won the law suit.
Anna Bortz
2001
Meeting in Shizuoka City sets up
Japan Association of Cities with
Large Foreign Populations, to
pressurize national government for
more support for foreign
communities.
Levelling off in the mid-2000s…
Year
1999
2006
Brazil 224,299 312,979
Peru
42,773 58,721
2008
312,582
59,723
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Prefecture Pop.
Aichi
67,162
Shizuoka
42,625
Mie
18,667
Gifu
17,078
Gunma
15,324
Kanagawa
13,091
Saitama
12,301
Shiga
11,384
Nagano
10,938
Ibaragi
10,200
Tochigi
7,710
Chiba
6,004
Tokyo
4,439
Yamanashi
4,318
Osaka
3,986
Prefectures with
large Brazilian
populations,
2009
Hamamatsu City
(In Shizuoka pref.) Has the
highest Brazilian population
of any Japanese city, c. 20,000
up to 2008, c. 18,000 in 2009.
No One
Home
Brazilian Lives
Remade in Japan
Daniel Touro
Linger, 2001
No One Home
Brazilian Lives Remade in Japan
Daniel Touro Linger, 2001
Emphasizes hybridization. Before they
come to Japan, Nikkei Brazilians are
fundamentally Brazilian, not Japanese.
They then “remake” (作り直す) their lives
in Japan – an improvised, hybrid identity.
Joshua Roth,
2002
“In Brazil, I’m called Japones, and
here in Japan, I’m called ‘gaijin’
(foreigner). I have no home.”
— comment by a Brazilian of
Japanese descent working in
Japan, in Joshua Roth’s Brokered
Homeland
Every year, Japan hosts the Conference for
Overseas Japanese. (It started in 1957,
mainly as a way for the Japanese
government to apologize for the
suffering of Nikkeis caused by Japan
entering World War II, with the result
that many of them were locked up.)
The prime minister and other
politicians praise the Nikkeijin
A shared narrative of suffering
“Through their indomitable fighting spirit (不屈
の闘志), fortitude (気概), perseverence （忍
耐）and their unceasing efforts (不断の努力),
the emigrants to Central and South America
conquered unimaginable hardships (想像を
絶する困難) in a land where everything from
climate to environment, language and
customs were different. (Their success)
deserves our deepest respect.” (Governor of
Kochi pref, Roth pp. 35-6)
Nikkeijin efforts to survive in a
hostile environment parallel
Japanese efforts to rebuild the
shattered homeland after WW2.
Ground level reality…
… could be a bit different.
Bath segregation
When Roth started working at a car factory in
Hamamatsu, he was shown around the
workers’ dormitories. His guide accidentally
took him into the wrong bathroom:
“I noticed a sign on the door that read Nihonjin
senyo (“Japanese use only”). The foreigners’
bath was next door. The sign on this door
read Gaikokujin senyo (“Foreigners’ use
only”).
“Inside was a smaller, older tub only
half filled with tepid water.”
Roth p. 38
tepid ぬるい
First phase lifestyle
Work extremely hard and live as cheaply
as possible.
Save money as fast as possible.
Get back to Brazil as soon as possible, to
use money earned in Japan to buy
house, start business, achieve affluent
lifestyle.
Starting to stay
Gradually the migrants start to think of staying
longer, renewing visa, and using their earning
power to have a more interesting lifestyle –
eating well, travelling in Asia etc.
“It is not true that Brazilians today only think of
saving money. It may have been so at the
beginning of the immigration ‘boom,’ but at the
moment, though still a minority, many want to
live comfortably in Japan.”
Roth p. 98
Divisions in the Brazilian community
Angelo Ishi (1994, in Portuguese) argues that the
Brazilian community is split in various ways
between
1. Those planning to stay a long time and those
planning to go home
2. Those concerned about Brazilian image and
those not
3. Those who get on well with Japanese people
and those who do not
4. Those who try to learn Japanese languaage and
customs, and those who do not (Roth p.109)
3 strategies for migrants
1. Go back home to Brazil.
2. Assimilate (同化), and become
Japanese.
3. The third way: become a distinct ethnic
minority in Japan.
Roth argues that many Nikkei Brazilians
are choosing the third way.
P.117
Hybrid culture?
Brazilians in Hamamatsu
experimented with various ways of
combining Brazilian and Japanese
culture – for example, adding samba
music to the ancient Hamamatsu
Kite Festival.
This, surely, is the way forward!
Tak Tsuda, 2003
Roth found separate baths. Tsuda
finds that many of the car
companies and car-part in Aichi
prefecture (a major employer of
Nikkei workers) also had separate
dining halls for Japanese and
foreigners. APARTHEIDT?
Tsuda, 2003: 161
Tsuda, 2003: 162
Minority counter-identity
Nikkei Brazilians are generally respected in Brazil
as a successful, hard-working minority. They are
proud to be called “Japones”.
When they arrive in Japan, many of them look
entirely Japanese, many have Japanese names.
But when it turns out they cannot speak Japanese
and are culturally Brazilian, many Japanese start
to despise them – they have lost their
“Japaneseness”
… and are suspected of being lazy.
“The dramatic change from positive to negative
minority status that the Japanese Brazilians
experience when they migrate to Japan is
accompanied by an equally significant
transformation in their ethnic
consciousness… they distance themselves
from their previous transnational ethnic
affiliation with the Japanese and assert a
much stronger Brazilian counter-identity in
opposition to Japanese society.”
Tsuda p. 155
Brazilian
restaurant in
Hamamatsu
Cultural
hybridity
I photographed this
poster advertising
classes in “Brazilianstyle jujitsu” as the
“X-TREME Jujitsu
Academy in
Yokohama
Self-segregation
“There is little interaction between the two ethnic
groups (Japanese and Nikkei) in most cases. At
Toyama, the Nikkeijin and the Japanese workers
always remained apart during break and lunch
hours, sitting in separate rooms or at different
tables and conversing only among themselves.
Sometimes if a group of Japanese Brazilians was
sitting at a certain table during break, the
Japanese would avoid that table, even if there
was room.”
Tsuda 2003: 161
“Conversation between Japanese and
Nikkeijin (beyond work instructions)
was basically nonexistent.”
Tsuda 2003: 162
“Once the Japanese find out that you aren’t
fluent in Japanese, they realize to their surprise
that you aren’t Japanese and therefore
distance themselves. They completely sideline
you and you can’t become part of their group.
As a foreigner, you are treated like an object in
Japan. My [Japanese] neighbors have decided
not to say a single word to me and remain
completely separate.”
Older Nisei man in Oizumi (Tsuda 2003: 163)
Nikkei Brazilian identity
Theoretically, identity could be:
1. Brazilian
2. Japanese
3. Hybrid combination of both
4. Something totally different –
“transnational identity”
Tsuda finds Nikkeis see
themselves as BRAZILIAN
Koga (1995) and Tajima (1995) argue that
they develop a Nikkei identity combining
the best of Brazilian and Japanese
culture… “I did not find this to be the case
even among my informants who had been
in Japan for a long time.” (Tsuda 246)
Transnational communities
without a consciousness?
“However… a couple of informants did state
that they now felt neither Brazilian nor
Japanese. Having been treated as a Japanese
minority in Brazil but rejected as foreigners in
Japan, they were conscious of this double
marginalization and mentioned that they are
a people without a homeland” (Tsuda 247-6).
No solidarity with other
Latinos
“The Peruvians are lazy and only a minority
work really hard. They also talk too much at
work and are disobedient, though there are
some good ones among them too. Very few
of them speak any Japanese or know
anything about Japan. Therefore, the
Japanese don’t like them and prefer
Brazilians.” (Older Nikkei Brazilian; Tsuda
251-2)
Many want to go home
“When the Brazilians leave Japan, they all say
‘I’m never going to come back to this country
to work again.’ But then a year or so later,
they appear at our doorstep again, saying “Hi,
I wonder if you could find me another job
here in Kawasaki.”
(Labor broker in Kawasaki, in Tsuda 240)
Circular migration
“A number of them find that their
employment and income situation back
home has been worsened rather than
improved by migration. For many,
remigration to Japan to earn more
money becomes the only alternative,
thus initiating a pattern of circular
migration.”
Tsuda 242
Linger (2001) and Roth (2002) both see
Nikkei Brazilians overcoming many serious
problems to create a new, hybrid culture
in Japan. Tsuda (2003) implicitly criticizes
both of them, saying that he sees Nikkei
Brazilians becoming more nationalistic –
rejecting Japanese culture because it
discriminates against them.
So… who is right?
Recent immigration
statistics may offer a
clue:
Falling like a stone!
(Brazilians)
2009: 267,456
2010: 230,552
2011: 210,032
“Haken” Dispute
Many Brazilians are employed as “Haken
rōdōsha” (temporary dispatch workers).
They have no job security and low
wages. But some researchers say that
their weakness is their strength] after
the 2008 Lehmann shock, the factories
laid off the Brazilians last because they
were cheaper labor.
Paid to leave
2009: Japanese government offers
“incentive” to go back to Brazil: 300,000
for adult + 200,000 yen per family
member.
Low rate of take-up: Many Brazilians have
now lived in Japan so long that “going
home” is no longer a practical option.
… reflecting a gradual shift
from temporary to
permanent migration.
Brazilian Kids’ identity
• Behave much worse in Japanese class
than in other subjects… associate
Japanese language with old people,
being bossed around.
• Roberto Pires Jr., Shizuoka University
• Discussing Ethnic Identity Formation
among the Second Generation of
Brazilian Migrants in Japan
Peruvians: steadier
2009: 57,464
2010: 54,636
2011: 52,842
Consider this stat:
A: Japanese migrants to Brazil: c. 1.5 million
B: Japanese migrants to Peru: c. 90,000
C: Nikkei immigrants from Brazil: 210,000
D: Nikkei immigrants from Peru: 53,000
C/A = 14% D/B = 59%
A far higher rate of reverse migration from Peru,
leads many to suspect that many Peruvian
Nikkeis are not the real thing.
Although Peruvian migration began in
direct response to the ethnicity-based
immigration policy, many non-Japanese
Peruvians also entered the country.
Some entered lawfully as spouses of
Nikkeijin or of Japanese, or under other
status categories, such as students...
Peruvian and Japanese-Peruvian
Migrants in Japan
Ayumi Takenaka (2003)
... Many others entered as tourists
before Japan abolished the visa
exemption agreement with Peru in
1994; or else, they entered as ‘false
Nikkeijin’ with forged documents.
(There are brokers who specializes in
Japanese descent documents)
Fake Nikkei…
Out of an estimated 60,000 Peruvians
(including 46,000 who were officially
registered in 2000), perhaps half are
of non-Japanese descent, making
Peruvians more diverse than other
South Americans in terms of ethnic
backgrounds and legal status.
Even real ones are mixed…
Among Peruvians of Japanese descent, a
greater proportion of them are also
considered to be ‘racially mixed,’ as
shown in a JICA survey (1992) that 30%
of Nikkei-Peruvian respondents were of
‘mixed descent’ as opposed to only 10%
of Brazilian counterparts.
人種的に「不純」？
• Because of this, Peruvians, overall, carry
a more negative image than other South
Americans in Japan and associated with
‘illegality’ and racial ‘impurity.’ At the
same time, Peruvian migrants are all
relegated treated as low-level ‘dekasegui’
laborers, regardless of their descent and
legal status.
The thinking goes that ‘Peruvians (of
non-Japanese descent) are sly and
shrewd, of course, and they are
even more so in Japan. Look how
they came to Japan illegally without
any shame.’
Ayumi Takenaka
And yet….
Contrary to common expectations,
moreover, non-Japanese-Peruvians
generally speak better Japanese, are
more satisfied with life in Japan and,
in a way, better integrated into
Japanese society than Peruvians of
Japanese descent. (Takenaka)
Alberto
Fujimori
A very famous Nikkei Peruvian. President of Peru
1990 to 2000, born in Peru to Japanese parents.
Flees to Japan in 2000, is allowed to live in Japan as
a Japanese national.
Japan refuses to deport 国外追放 Fujimori to Brazil
because there is no deportation treaty 犯人引き
渡し条約 between the two countries.
Dual nationality?
Fujimori’s father registered his birth with the
Japanese Embassy in Lima. This creates
another problem and the cause of increasing
anger in Peru: if he is a citizen of Japan, what
was he doing serving two (nearly three)
terms as president of Peru? Fujimori's
supporters have always been insistent that
he is a Peruvian, but Fujimori himself has
always kept silent on this point.
Japan does not recognize dual nationality
日本は二重国籍を認めない
Any Japanese citizen over the age of 22 who
also has the nationality of a foreign country
has to abandon either Japanese nationality
or the other country’s nationality.
Yet Fujimori could not be president of Peru
unless he has Peruvian nationality!
Therefore he must have been breaking the law
of at least one country, maybe both.
June 2011
Fujimori’s
daughter Keiko
runs for
president of
Peru… but is
narrowly
defeated.
Ruy Ramos
Japan
national
football team,
1990-95
Pure Brazilian,
naturalized. A
very popular
Japanese
man!
Marcus Tulio
Tanaka
Nikkei
Brazilian…
now
Japanese
again
Jake Shimabukuro
5th generation Japanese-Hawaiian
Tsurumi
Brazil and
Okinawa in
Yokohama
What have we here?
An advert in a Portuguese-language newspaper for
workers to do clean-up work in the Fukushima nuclear
disaster zone, for 10-12,000 yen, or 30,000 yen for just
two hours work for those willing to work within 20km of
the stricken power plant. Sundays off, 3 meals a day.
廃棄物の除去・20キロ圏内/日当3万円/1日2時間。
廃棄物の除去・安全な場所/日当1万-1万2千円/日曜休・
住宅と三食付。
NISHIO SAKURAI, 1993-4
I first met Sakurai Nishio on Thursday
August 12, 1993 -- a warm summer
afternoon. Thin and slightly stooped,
with white stubble and a leathery yellow
face that often cracked into an infectious
grin, he'd spent much of his life in Brazil.
He spoke Portuguese about as well as
Japanese, and wasn't quite perfect in
either.
Born on the outskirts of Sendai
around 1937
His family emigrated to Brazil when he
was three. He married and started a
family in Sao Paulo, but found he could
make better money as a migrant
labourer back in Japan, sending money
back to his folks.
He was on his fifth stint in Japan when I
met him, each one lasting a year or
more.
He had enjoyed great success as a
migrant laborer.
He still had a Japanese passport, so he could
work legally, and enjoy job opportunities
not available to non-Japanese migrants.
He used to do night maintenance for
Japan Railways, which paid about
¥20,000 a night. His family in Brazil could
live on $1,000 a year, and the yen was
about 100 to the dollar in 1993-4.
Easy money?
He could theoretically support his
family with
one week of hard work per year
once he had covered his living and
travel expenses. He used to go back
to Brazil with anything up to $5,000
in cash hidden in his shoe.
His family had enjoyed great economic
benefits from Nishio's efforts.
They had a large house with eight rooms, and
his four children had got a proper education.
He also claimed to own seven apartments in
Sao Paulo and to have ¥10 million stashed in
Japan, and spoke of setting up an ice-cream
parlor back in Sao Paulo. Alas, however,
when I met him he was rapidly drinking away
his hard-earned wealth and had stopped
sending money back to Brazil.
His lengthy spells abroad had
alienated him from his own family.
His well-educated children did not respect him
and treated him like a stranger when he was
home. None of them had learned Japanese
and they despised his imperfect Portuguese.
His wife found out he had kept a mistress
during one four-year stint in Yokohama, and
started badmouthing him to their friends.
There was a serious financial problem over
some land which he bought from his brotherin-law, who had already mortgaged it before
the sale and had then gone bankrupt.
And so Nishio, who seemed a
happy-go-lucky guy when I first
met him, would walk the streets
of Kotobuki with shoulders
hunched and eyes cast down,
tormented by worry over the
situation in Sao Paulo.
Why not go home to Brazil?
He already had enough money for a comfortable
retirement. Here in Yokohama he was just
wasting money, not earning. But he wouldn't go
home. Partly it was fear of the reception from
his family, partly fear that he would get ripped
off. He had been knifed and robbed in Sao Paulo
a year before. People would kill you for a couple
of hundred dollars over there, he said. Also he
had some family in Japan -- he seemed to enjoy
the trips he made to see his cousins in Sendai.
Self-destruction
Nishio used to frequent the Tozen, a Korean bar
with hostesses. He let it be known that he
had plenty of money, and they overcharged
him cruelly. He always insisted on treating
me, and anyone else at the table, and would
bitterly resist any attempt to treat him back.
He had no interest in sex, having been
impotent for years, a fact which he
pathetically mentioned right in front of the
Tozen bar-girls.
I believe Nishio was on a death trip
He was willfully ruining his finances and
his health. He suffered from diabetes,
and was often so ill that he couldn't
even respond to a knock on the door.
He had whisky for breakfast. His face
was yellow, his hair and teeth were
falling out, he was decaying visibly by
the day.
New Year's Eve, 1993-4
We had a festive drink at the Tozen, but he
showed unusual restraint and went to bed
shortly after midnight, saying he had to work
a very badly paid, 24-hour shift sweeping up
rubbish at Yokohama station on New Year's
Day. This would be his first day's work in over
three months -- an attempt to kick start the
new year and bust out of his downward spiral
of drunken dissolution.
8 months later
I saw him at the Kotobuki Summer Festival. He
looked pale and thin, but no worse than 8
months before. He said he'd moved out of
Kotobuki, taking a flat in neighboring
Nakamura-cho, and had finally abandoned
the Tozen after a Korean friend had started
charging his drinks to Nishio's account even
when Nishio wasn't there.
He had a friend with him, a tall, middleaged, good-humoured Japanese man,
who said he was Nishio‘s flat-mate. I
asked Nishio if he was working these
days. He said no, with a laugh. I
wondered what he was up to. I had a
funny feeling that maybe the other guy
was a sponger.
Sponger 居候
I agreed to meet him in the Yuen
bar a little later, but he was not
there when I got there.
I never saw him again.