The Ambiguous Position of Nikkei Brazilian Workers in Japan

Event details
Speaker : Dr Regina Yoshie Matsue
               Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Japanese Studies, NUS
Date      : Friday, 19 October 2007
Time      : 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue    : AS4/03-28 (JS Meeting Room)

Abstract

This presentation discusses the issue of citizenship among the Nikkei Brazilian workers in Japan. The 1980s economic crisis in Brazil and the shortage of unskilled labor force in Japan led to a massive migration of the Nikkei Brazilian (mainly the second and third generation of Japanese) to the country. In 1990 the Japanese government began to encourage such movement through the immigration reform law which granted to people with Japanese ancestry a renewable visa and unrestricted access to labor markets. Japanese authorities expected an “easy adaptation” by these “ethnic Japanese” into Japanese society. In other words, authorities' admission of ethnic Japanese can be interpreted as a reflection of blood-based understanding of Japanese citizenship. Nevertheless, the Nikkeijin – who were born and raised in Brazil are culturally different from the Japanese – were often marginalized and treated as secondary class citizens within the Japanese society. The case of Japanese-Brazilian, therefore, disrupts the notion of a neat overlap between nationality and Japanese ethnicity. Together with this issue, the paper also discusses some examples of how Brazilians are mobilizing themselves in local communities and engaging in local NGOs or volunteer groups in order to fight for their rights .