BRAZIL: Japanese diaspora prepare to celebrate the centenary of their migration to Latin America's largest country, where they number 1.5 million

Record ID: 465238

  • Title: BRAZIL: Japanese diaspora prepare to celebrate the centenary of their migration to Latin America's largest country, where they number 1.5 million
  • Date: 17th June 2008
  • Summary: JAPANESE IMMIGRANT READING JAPANESE NEWSPAPER IN NEWSSTAND JAPANESE DESCENDENTS BUYING NEWSPAPERS
  • Embargoed: 2nd July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAD4T80EK1RZUVFQT2RG3AQU9X2
  • Story Text: A century after the first Japanese immigrants made their way to Brazil, the influence of the island country's culture are clearly seen and felt in the streets of the Brazilian business capital Sao Paulo.
    The city's downtown district of Liberdade is like a slice of Tokyo, with its main street lined with red-colored torii gates of Shinto shrines.
    Soba noodle and sushi restaurants vie with karaoke bars and supermarkets selling sticky natto beans and soy sauce.
    The residents of Liberdade have been celebrating the highly anticipated immigration anniversary since the beginning of the year, with workshops, street concerts and exhibitions.
    Sao Paulo's Japanese Immigration Museum gathers photographs, documents and objects that tell the story of those who arrived in Brazil in the beginning of the century.
    According to the museum's director, Lidia Reiko Yamashita, many people left Japan in search of a better life at that time because the country had been hit by two wars and an economic crisis.
    The first immigrants arrived on June 18, 1908 on the ship Kasatu Maru
    "They came because Japan was going through a difficult time just after the Sino-Japanese and the Russo-Japanese wars, and their suffering an economic crisis. The government tried to give them the conditions to make a living in other locations," said Yamashita.
    A total of 781 peasant farmers were aboard the ship when it arrived in Santos port near Sao Paulo to work on six farms.
    The Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito's visit to Brazil on Wednesday (June 18) marks the centenary's official date -- there are about 1.5 million Japanese descendents whose influence on society has spread from the vast farmlands to martial arts to architecture and the business arena.
    Son of one of the first immigrants to arrive in the country, retired engineer Ken Yamazoto dedicates his weekends to teaching Brazilian children how to make handcrafted kites.
    Yamazoto believes that Japanese immigrants living in Brazil are more connected to their cultural traditions than those living in Japan.

    "We, the children of Japanese immigrants in Brazil, perhaps maintain Japanese culture more than the modern Japanese themselves. They rose to the top of the world because of quick technological development, and forgot about the simple, beautiful things. I think that culture should be preserved at any cost," he said, sitting in his workshop.
    From being viewed with suspicion by many Brazilians in the early years and through World War II, the Japanese have been absorbed into the South American country's melting pot.
    Third and fourth generation Japanese-Brazilians have intermarried with descendents of Africans, Italians and Portuguese.
    After tough years of labour on the coffee farms, Japanese immigrants looked for work in big cities like Sao Paulo, where they flocked to the downtown area because rent was cheaper.
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