[wpFWNoIt]

I wonder why the Japanese and the Brazilian often mix, i mean those countries are miles away from each other. I have seen in Brazil (Sao Paulo) many Japanese living there and from what the paulistas told me it was pretty usual. I never got the guts to ask why to them.

thanks

[regfortruegoo]

Why are there so many Italian descendants there? Same reason, because of immigration

[offemyJuccete]

Why are there so many Italian descendants there? Same reason, because of immigration

You are right. but the Japanese-Brazilian relationship is special, it is very random.

Edit:

I have found this:

The end of feudalism in Japan generated great poverty in the rural population, so many Japanese began to emigrate in search of better living conditions. In 1907, the Brazilian and the Japanese governments signed a treaty permitting Japanese migration to Brazil. The first Japanese immigrants (790 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 plantations.[18]

In the first seven years, 3,434 more Japanese families (14,983 people) arrived. The beginning of World War I (1914) started a boom in Japanese migration to Brazil, such that between 1917 and 1940 over 164,000 Japanese came to Brazil, 75% of them going to São Paulo, where most of the coffee plantations were.[19]

[Alexeryy]

I think they were the only non Catholics allowed to enter the country? I think it has to do with a stereotype that they are very hard workers but that goes for Chinese too. Maybe because of Portugals history with Japan the belief passed on the Brazil

[JosephNF]

Ordinary Japanese farmers after the Meiji era became very poor, as they couldn't pay their taxes in the recently monetized economy. They then started immigrating to cities and, after they couldn't find work there, to other countries. They mostly went to Hawaii, Australia, Canada and the US at first. But at the turn of the 20th century, racist immigration policies forbid the Japanese to immigrate to those countries. This was also the time when people in the west were afraid of the "yellow peril" and Japan was becoming expansionist, conquering Korea, Manchuria, defeating Russia, etc.

In the end of the 19th century, Brazil ended the slave trade. The farms that used to have slaves then needed paid workers. Due to the racist ideology of the time, the Brazilian elite thought it was best if they imported European immigrants, specially from Southern Catholic Europe, since they'd fit in better in Brazilian culture.

At that time, Southern Europe was with a suprlus of people as medicine reduced mortality rates and people kept reproducing, that's why there were so many immigration waves from Italy, Portugal and Spain.The Italian and Spanish governments fostered immigration to America, even paying the passage of the immigrants, so that they wouldn't create trouble in the cities, being unemployed and all that.

But the Brazilian elite still kept treating their employees like the slaves of old, they didn't know how to treat workers well. After some time the governments of Italy, Spain and Germany stopped paying the passages of immigrants to Brazil, because those immigrants would be mistreated. The immigrant flow lessened a lot. This happened at the beginning of the 20th century, at the same time the Japanese were being forbidden to go to the US, Canada, Australia, etc.

With less immigrants, the Brazilian land owners didn't have the workforce they needed. When representatives of the two countries met to establish foreign relations, they saw that Japan could offer what Brazil needed at the time, a cheap labor force. The Brazilians then made an excession to their racist immigration law that only allowed Europeans and decided to allow Japanese as well, to have workers in their farms.

And that's what Japan did for the next 30 years (after 1908), paying the trips of Japanese immigrants to Brazil, to work in the farms of the landowners. Eventually, after WWII, the Japanese immigrants decided to stay instead of going back (some actually even came after WWII, as Japan was facing great hunger at the time), and that's why there are so many Japanese Brazilians.

[somawaima]

here is something interesting. Japanese are allowing Brazilian Japanese to go BACK to Japan and regain citizenship because of population issues!

[BoboStin]

All those "Japanese" you saw in São Paulo are more likely to be children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Japanese immigrants and do not even speak Japanese. Why does it surprise you?

São Paulo is also full of people of Italian descent, but since they dont have an Asian face, they do not look different in the crowd. In fact, Italians there are a thousand times more numerous than Japanese, but the Japanese call the attention because of their Asian face.

Both groups are equally Brazilians, people do not realize that many areas of Brazil are populated by grandchildren of immigrants, and they are not less Brazilians because of that. They just are out of the steriotype that foreigners have about Brazilians, but they are as Brazilian as any others.

It is harder for Brazilians of Japanese descent to be accepted as 100% Brazilians because of their Asian face.

A Brazilian whose great-great-grandparents were Japanese may be considered "less Brazilian" than a Brazilian whose both parents were immigrants from Portugal, because of racial steriotypes.

But, in fact, I know some Japanese-Brazilians, and they are not different from other Brazilians in terms of culture.

[Manteiv]

All those "Japanese" you saw in São Paulo are more likely to be children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Japanese immigrants and do not even speak Japanese. Why does it surprise you?

São Paulo is also full of people of Italian descent, but since they dont have an Asian face, they do not look different in the crowd. In fact, Italians there are a thousand times more numerous than Japanese, but the Japanese call the attention because of their Asian face.

Both groups are equally Brazilians, people do not realize that many areas of Brazil are populated by grandchildren of immigrants, and they are not less Brazilians because of that. They just are out of the steriotype that foreigners have about Brazilians, but they are as Brazilian as any others.

It is harder for Brazilians of Japanese descent to be accepted as 100% Brazilians because of their Asian face.

A Brazilian whose great-great-grandparents were Japanese may be considered "less Brazilian" than a Brazilian whose both parents were immigrants from Portugal, because of racial steriotypes.

But, in fact, I know some Japanese-Brazilians, and they are not different from other Brazilians in terms of culture.

It is not a racist question, i was surprised because both countries are not even geographically close.

Also the Japanese are not a people of emigrants like the Italians or the Spaniards, it is hard to see a numerous Japanese community outside Japan with the exception of the USA.

[alecaf]

It is not a racist question, i was surprised because both countries are not even geographically close.

Also the Japanese are not a people of emigrants like the Italians or the Spaniards, it is hard to see a numerous Japanese community outside Japan with the exception of the USA.

Yes, it may be surprising, even for Brazilian themselves, because except for São Paulo and Paraná, the rest of Brazil has very few people of Japanese descent.

Some Brazilians treat Japanese-Brazilians as "less Brazilians" because of their Asian face. It is a stigma they carry. While children of European immigrants were easily accepeted as native Brazilians after a few generations, the same did not happen with the Japanese, because they carry their foreign ancestry on their face.

But, in fact, they are as Brazilians as any other. I feel angry when I see someone calling a Brazilian of Japanese descent "japonês" (Japanese) or "Japa" (Jap), because nobody call a person of Italian descent "italiano" or a person of Portuguese descent "português", becase they become automatically Brazilians as long as they are born here.

The Japanese stigma in Brazil is the same of Latino in the USA. For example, people live Eva Longoria, whose family has been living in the USA for centuries and centuries, despite that she is still called a "Latina", while White Americans born to Irish or English parents automatically become "average American".

The people of Japanese descent are the only ones who are still treated as "less Brazilians" in this country, even though most of them cannot speak a word of Japanese

[JennyStewarta]

here is something interesting. Japanese are allowing Brazilian Japanese to go BACK to Japan and regain citizenship because of population issues!

AFAIK any descendant of japanese can get/regain citizenship. I see many peruvian japanese with japan passports at the airport everyday.

---------- Post added 2011-02-27 at 18:33 ----------

Yes, it may be surprising, even for Brazilian themselves, because except for São Paulo and Paraná, the rest of Brazil has very few people of Japanese descent.

Some Brazilians treat Japanese-Brazilians as "less Brazilians" because of their Asian face. It is a stigma they carry. While children of European immigrants were easily accepeted as native Brazilians after a few generations, the same did not happen with the Japanese, because they carry their foreign ancestry on their face.

But, in fact, they are as Brazilians as any other. I feel angry when I see someone calling a Brazilian of Japanese descent "japonês" (Japanese) or "Japa" (Jap), because nobody call a person of Italian descent "italiano" or a person of Portuguese descent "português", becase they become automatically Brazilians as long as they are born here.

The Japanese stigma in Brazil is the same of Latino in the USA. For example, people live Eva Longoria, whose family has been living in the USA for centuries and centuries, despite that she is still called a "Latina", while White Americans born to Irish or English parents automatically become "average American".

The people of Japanese descent are the only ones who are still treated as "less Brazilians" in this country, even though most of them cannot speak a word of Japanese

LOL, this shows that browsing the Internet can't compare to real life experience. What a load of bull.