Japanese in Latin America

▪ 1997

      by Sarah Cameron

      Beginning in the late 1880s, millions of immigrants went to Latin America seeking freedom, land, and economic opportunities. Most were from southern Europe, fleeing persecution or poverty and taking with them their Roman Catholic, family-oriented values. About a quarter of a million arrivals in Brazil in the first half of the 1900s came from Japan, however, encouraged and supervised by their government. The first 830 Japanese immigrants arrived in 1908 in the port of Santos, Brazil, from which they were sent under contract on to the coffee plantations in the south. They were valued for their agricultural skills and contributed to developing marginal land in São Paulo and frontier regions in Paraná and Amazônia. Very few returned to their native land when their contracts expired, preferring instead to assimilate themselves into the racial melting pot of their adopted country.

      By 1996 there were some one million Japanese-descended Brazilians, noted for their market gardening and still active in growing coffee, cotton, and tea but also concentrated in the major urban centres of São Paulo, Brasília, and Rio de Janeiro. In São Paulo there is a large Japanese community in an area known as Liberdade, where the streets are crammed with Japanese restaurants and shops selling Japanese goods and clothes. There are Japanese food markets and a museum of Japanese immigration with displays on the contribution of the Japanese immigrants since the first years on the coffee plantations. West of São Paulo there are also notable clusters of Japanese in Londrina and Maringá, 20th-century towns founded by immigrants. In the northeast their presence is also felt; for example, Belém has several excellent Japanese restaurants, partly as a result of a Japanese colony founded in the interior in the 1940s.

      Some cultural traditions have been retained, but these are being gradually eroded by the influence of television, radio, and the educational system. There is now a division between those Japanese who have been born in the country and those who have been assigned there temporarily by their employer. Japanese-Brazilians are totally integrated into Brazilian culture; they go to Brazilian schools, and Portuguese is their first language. Some do not even speak Japanese and rarely associate with those who are temporary residents. The Japanese who go to work in Brazil for four to five years number about 5,000 at any one time, and their children go to Japanese schools.

      After Brazil, Peru has the largest Japanese immigrant community, totaling up to 100,000 people. The colony is notable for having produced the first president of Japanese descent anywhere in the world outside Japan. Pres. Alberto Fujimori's parents emigrated from Japan, and he was born in Peru in 1938. This was a difficult time for the Japanese community. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, fears of a Japanese espionage operation in Peru led to a series of roundups of the Japanese communities along the Pacific coast, as a result of which about 1,000 inhabitants of Japanese descent were deported to concentration camps in the U.S. Many had their businesses confiscated, while others avoided deportation or arrest by bribing the police. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 further alienated the community. They kept a low profile, gaining a reputation as honest, hard-working businessmen rather than as politicians, and became fully integrated into Peruvian society. When campaigning in rural areas, Fujimori makes a point of donning an Indian poncho and hat. Since his victory in the elections in 1990, which earned him the nickname "tsunami" ("tidal wave" in Japanese), several Japanese-Peruvians have gained prominent government positions: in Congress, in the Cabinet, on privatization committees, in regional government, and in government-operated companies.

      Links with Japan and the rest of Asia have been promoted in the 1990s, with Peru building on its geographical position as a gateway between Latin America and Asia. It is on the waiting list to join the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. Asian immigration is actively encouraged, with Peruvian citizenship for sale at $25,000. All those of East Asian origin, whether Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or others, are known as "chinos" in Peru. Opinion polls consistently show that Japan is the country Peruvians most trust and admire. Fujimori has made several trips to Japan since his election, and Japan has played a leading role in the "support group" of nations helping with Peru's balance of payments problems. Donations have flowed and credits have been signed, but Japanese companies have proved cautious, and there has been only a trickle of direct foreign investment.

      The 10-day tour of Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Costa Rica in 1996 by Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto (see BIOGRAPHIES (Hashimoto, Ryutaro )) was the first Japanese state visit to Latin America in seven years.

      Late in December 1996 the presence of Japanese in Peru became known throughout the world when members of Peru's Túpac Amaru guerrilla group invaded the Japanese embassy in Lima during a large party and took those in the embassy hostage. The guerrillas demanded the release of Túpac Amaru members imprisoned in Peru. (See Peru .)

      Sarah Cameron is a freelance writer and editor of Footprint Handbooks.

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