Searching for Home Abroad

Between 1908 and the 1950s, about 240,000 Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil. Although most started out in agriculture, over time Japanese immigrants and their descendants moved to urban areas and built a solid presence among Brazil’s middle sectors. By the 1990s, Japanese Brazilians were estimated at 1.2 million. In 1990, in the midst of economic uncertainties in Brazil and labor shortages in Japan, new opportunities emerged for Japanese Brazilians abroad when the Japanese government opened its labor market to people of Japanese descent. By 2000, an estimated 250,000 Brazilians of Japanese ancestry were living in Japan, the majority working in unskilled factory jobs. The essays in this volume explore the varied ways people from these transnational communities have built their lives, made sense of their experiences, and negotiated their roles and identities.This volume proposes a multidisciplinary examination of the changing notions of ethnic, national, and transnational identities. The authors come from a variety of academic backgrounds, including anthropology, history, sociology, and ethnomusicology. Seeking “to complicate rather than resolve” (p. 2), the book includes a variety of analytical agendas and contrasting interpretations. Most of the articles approach the tension of living in transnational spaces from a positive perspective—emphasizing the agency of Japanese immigrants and their descendants and their creative negotiation of identity. There are, however, a few that challenge that view, resulting in a multidimensional and nuanced analysis.Four articles focus on the experiences of Japanese immigrants in Brazil. Jeffrey Lesser presents a historical overview of Japanese immigration in Brazil, examining how this group adapted to changing circumstances and perceptions in the host country by creating and making use of multiple identities over time and across generations. Specific examples of this negotiation of identities are presented in three other articles. Shuhei Hosokawa analyzes the work of Rokurô Kôyama, a Japanese journalist and self-trained linguist in Brazil; he attempted to legitimize the inclusion of Japanese in the Brazilian nation by linguistically linking them to the ancestral Tupi. Koichi Mori offers a significant regional perspective by exploring how Okinawan immigrants and their descendants (the largest regional group of Japanese in Brazil) negotiated their ethnic and cultural identity by selecting from a broad “identity repertoire” that ranged from assimilation to differentiation. Joshua Hotaka Roth discusses the existence of multiple loyalties and the role of “practical nostalgia” among older Japanese immigrants who registered for absentee voting in Brazil in the 1990s.Six articles examine Japanese Brazilians in Japan and concur that transnational identities are situational. These articles analyze how transnational experiences are shaped by ethnicity, gender, class, state policies, and historical circumstances. Many Japanese Brazilian immigrants thought that, along with economic opportunities, they could find an “ethnic homeland” in Japan. However, confronted with a difficult integration and discrimination, many have built closer relations among themselves, resulting in a strong “ethnic community” and identification with the “cultural homeland” they left behind. In this way, “diasporic Japanese [have] turn[ed] into diasporic Brazilians” (p. 211). The consequences of this phenomenon are contested territory. Angelo Ishi emphasizes the importance of professional and class conflicts over ethnic or cultural ones. For him, Japanese Brazilian immigrants balance their downward occupational mobility in Japan by building a “typical Brazilian middle class life” that includes distinctively Brazilian consumption and leisure patterns and by developing a strong connection with Brazil (another example of practical nostalgia) (p. 77). In contrast, Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda departs from the prevailing view and emphasizes the negative effects of transnationalism, arguing that Japanese Brazilians in Japan experience multiple losses and social alienation, resulting in a state of “homeland-less abroad” with no clear source of belonging. He focuses on the pathological aspects of this experience, with only a marginal consideration of the role of the “ethnic” community as a stability factor. Other articles about Japanese Brazilians include Karen Tei Yamashita’s creative interlude, which contrasts Japanese and Brazilian mores and social conventions, and sociologist Keiko Yamanaka’s analysis of the impact of gender on labor conditions and wages of Japanese and foreign workers.Finally, anthropologist Daniel Linger closes with a discussion of the book’s main concepts. By focusing on the contrasting experiences of two individuals, he questions their analytical validity and even the existence of a “Japanese diaspora” or of “Japanese Brazilians.” This open, reflective ending is fitting for a thought-provoking book that both addresses significant questions and suggests paths for further exploration. Readers interested in Latin American and Asian migrations and diaspora studies will find this book rewarding. Its case studies and theoretical discussion will illuminate future comparative studies of similar phenomena, such as the migration of the Latin American descendants of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century European immigrants to the countries of the European Union and Israel

Agency (philosophy) · Economic growth · Ethnic group · Identity (music) · Immigration · Indigenous · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Transnationalism · Variety (cybernetics) · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy