japanese immigration to brazil

1 This document may not be reproduced without the author’s permission. JAPANESE IN BRAZIL OR BRAZILIANS IN JAPAN? THE IDENTITY ISSUE INSIDE OF A MIGRATORY CONTEXT Adriana Capuano de Oliveira Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciencies University of Campinas, Brazil Paper presented at the Conference Cultural Encounters Between Latin America and the Pacific Rim. March 6-7, 1998. * Ph.D. Student at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences, University of Campinas. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This paper was written under the auspices of the Project on Latin America and the Pacific Rim at the University of California, San Diego, where I was a visiting fellow in February-March, 1998. Financial support for the UCSD project has been provided by the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Title VI Program of the U.S. Departament of Education, and the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and the Pacific Rim Research Program of the University of California. Special acknowledgements to Professor Peter H. Smith as Senior Adviser and coordinator of the project on Cultural Encounters Between Latin America and the Pacific Rim. I want also to express my gratitute and thanks to my advisor in Brazil, Professor Gilson Schwartz, who was always willing to help me on this fellowship project with kindness and commitment, and also, to Professor Guillermo Raul Ruben, for his remmembrance on my work and advice. Special thanks to the CILAS/UCSD staff: Florencia Quintanar, Shelley Marquez, Paulette Synodis, Andrew Selee, and Julia Adame, for their support and friendship. 2 INTRODUCTION The focus of my research1 is the subject of the Brazilian emigration destined to Japan, or, how is usually called in Brazil, the “dekassegui phenomenum2”. Among the migratory flows of exit of Brazilians abroad, this recent migratory flow in direction to Japan has certain peculiar particularities. One of these particularities is the primordial focus of the research, and it is characterized by the distinctive context of the emigrants' identity. Those who emigrated to Japan are in majority Japanese descendants. It’s identity, once related with this migration process, have suffered a new reflexive moment. Starting from some moment of Brazilian history, is that it has noticed inverse migratory flows3 of Brazilians that begin to seek better living conditions abroad. This reflects a number of social conditions and transformations for which Brazil is experiencing. It suggests the analysis of some international transformations that are recently erupting. In the few academic studies that I found regarding this subject (Sales, 1991,1992,1995; Margolis, 1994; Patarra, 1995, 1996; Ninomiya, 1992; Chigusa, 1994), as well as in the reports of the press that was sometimes devoted to cover this occurrence, the event of Brazilian emigration has been described as something unprecedent in its history, once until then, Brazil was typically considered an immigrants' receiver country. The specific subject that I approached in this context of the Brazilian migratory flow to Japan - or Japanese-Brazilians as they usually are called (descendants of Japanese born in Brazil), nipo-brasileiros in Portuguese - is the subject of the these immigrants' cultural identity. For cultural identity I am understanding, according to the definition found in Stuart Hall, a shared culture, checking to the group an origin in common - real or supposed - besides a history and a shared ancestrality, exalting, therefore, the similarity among the ones that identifies. “The cultural identities come from some part, they have histories. But as everything that is historical, they suffer constant transformation. Far away from a past essentialized, they are subject to the continuous game of the history, of the culture and of the power.” (Hall, 1996:69). Such a subject is problematic in any migratory context, because the guidelines of subjects as cultural identity and lines as the nationality are also being reformulated today. Even so, I believe that with the focused specific migrating population, this fact makes itself even more complex, once these people, although they had been born in Brazil, they are not entirely inserted in the pattern of Brazilian identity currently transmitted. 3 THE BRAZILIAN CONTEXT When I refer to the “pattern of Brazilian identity currently transmitted”, I am referring to a series of placements that were taking place, during the centuries, in the concern to the constitution of the nationality and the Brazilian identity and people. The Brazilian nation, as it knows today, had, actually, a quite recent constitution. It dates from the turning of the century XIX-XX the problem of the Brazilian national subject.4 The end of the century XIX was constituted by a critical period of the formation of the States-nations, as we know them today (Anderson, 1989; Habermas, 1995). In Brazil, this same issue about the formation of the State-national made itself present, and this was being based on the derived models from Europe, intrinsicly related with the racial subject. (Schwarcz, in: Folha, 1993, Schwarcz, 1987). To think about what would be the Brazilian nation, in that moment, it meant to think on what would be its human components. Brazil at that moment was structured strongly in the black and mestizo population, it was already taken as a problematic nation since its beginning, what established, since then, an impasse for the formation of the Brazilian nation. Authors such as Oliveira Vianna (1987), among others, specified the negativity of a nation formed by such racial contingents. A healthy nation could only be established with the presence of the white element, civilizing. This kind of thought was one of the main reasons for the strong incentive of the European immigration that Brazil wanted received, that had exactly its largest moments on the turning of the century, when the national subject was a problem of great centrality. This impasse between the national formation and the “degenerated races” of the country it would only be solved in the beginning of the third decade of the century XX, with Gilberto Freyre's strong presence and of its classic “Casa Grande e Senzala”, that starts an entire new period in concern to the subject of the Brazilian identity. Gilberto Freyre inverts the notions that diagnosed the failure of the nation, because of the black's and mestizo’s presence as something obstructive to a healthy nation, and placed these negative values as positive mark of a nation that differs exactly from the others due to this factor. Brazil is a mixed nation, harmoniously miscegenated among the three original races from the Brazilian nation. This brings a fundamental differentiation mark from the other nations, as a consequence of it. For the purposes on this research, even if this nation formulation is a collective illusion of the national harmony, the importance that stands out in this case is that 4 this version of nationality was the one which gave an answer to the national impasse. This version has been consecrated and disclosed thoroughly, establishing a strong part of the Brazilian imaginary as a nation or community. As a result, the Brazilian nation and its national identity, is formed by the belief of a country constituted by three original races of the nation, to know - the Portuguese white and settler, the native Indian, and the Black slave. Inside of this nation concept established, any other illustration that didn't belong to these basic patterns of the constitution (the “three races” or the elements derived from them - mestizos), could not be part of its identity pattern, because this is formed sediment in the racial subject. In this way, any individuals that don't belong to this “pattern” of Brazilian identity, and in this specific case, Japanese and descending of Japanese, (that would belong to a “other race”, that is not part of the national formation), could not be accepted naturally as Brazilian, or at least, the idea that is taken about the Brazilian “pattern.” This non acceptance, however, takes place due to other facts of the Brazilian society, that are associated to this context. The descendants of Japanese, once born in Brazil, have the right to be Brazilian citizens, and in fact they are, such as in birth, as well in behavior. However, these descendants, for possesing physical features similar to those of the Japanese citizens, (once the isolation of the Japanese community in Brazil produced a great number of marriages among themselves), they are identified until today as “Japanese.” Inside the Brazilian society, and inside of the Japanese community itself, it is quite a trivial fact and it passes as unperceived these people's constant denomination as Japanese. They were born in Brazil, they speak Portuguese and they behave culturally as Brazilians, but they are called and considered as Japanese, not mattering from what generation they belong to, not mattering how distant they are today from the Japanese culture. It is necessary to analyze, therefore, all the situation that involves such a context. As my hypothesis, I established that this factor is a consequence of a strong and fundamental characteristic of the Brazilian society, that is the racial characterization through physical features. I took as base for such an argument the Brazilian subject of the Blacks. It is fact that in Brazil this “racial” condition of the people is taken as a consequence of the types physically expressed (phenotype), and it doesn't happen in another sense, as in other countries where this racial characterization is taken through blood ties or cultural aspects, (just as it is the case of the American society). Such is the analysis done by Oracy Nogueira (1985), that perhaps has been the first Brazilian specialist to represent these different forms to express racial prejudice5. 5 In this way, it is possible to find, inside of the Brazilian society, individuals that can be descendants of a same group, and therefore, depending on the physical aspect that they present, can belong to different “racial” groups. In the case studied by Oracy Nogueira, his concern with Blacks and its descendants. In this same sense, I will dare to comment the problem of the Brazilians descendants of Japanese that, according to my understanding, is characterized by similar racial perception inside Brazilian society. Exemplifying what I say: the descendants of Japanese born in Brazil are daily denominated as Japanese, it is not taken into consideration how far they are already culturally distant from Japan, since they carry physical lines attributed to Japanese. In the case of the Blacks, the color of the skin is what most stands out. Among the descendants of Japanese, the characteristic of having “pulled eyes” is the factor of larger prominence. On the other hand, descendants of Japanese, as descendants as these other ones, or even closer to the Japanese culture (from more recent generations), if born from mixed marriages, (which has been occuring with a frequency much larger lately), in case they have the characteristics belonging to the Japanese group, they will be considered Japanese; otherwise, if they present an accentuated phenotype of the other origin group, it will be to its group they will belong. As in the case of the Blacks, analyzed by Oracy Nogueira, the same happens in this situation. Even among siblings, one can be considered white, for example, and the other will continue to carry Japanese's stigma; as well as among the descendants of Blacks, some will be taken naturally as white, while others will be Black or mulatto, according to their physical, and not cultural or genetic expressions. Inserted in this context, however, in Brazil, even if Blacks are only those individuals that physically express the black color in the skin, in any way, everybody is characterized as belonging to the Brazilian nation, since it is a shared fact of the Brazilian identity the Black's presence in the national formation, as well as the emphasized mark of its society, the miscigenation. In the same way, so does the part of the national constitution the presence of the White in the country’s formation, and once the racial subject is developed here in physical and external terms (and not cultural, as exposed above), immigrants' children and grandchildren culturally very distant from Brazil too, may not suffer the same conditions of those from Japanese. As it is the case of the Slavic people and of the Russian immigrants, or of the Arab populations in general. They are already accepted perfectly as typical Brazilian citizens from its first generation of descendants, because they are expressed physically as part of the “white” population of the country6, even if culturally their parents have come from cultures 6 so different from the Brazilian as the Japanese one, also with a different and not western language and habits, or even alphabets. As a consequence, to the Brazilian citizens descendants of Japanese is very dense their acceptance as part of the Brazilian people, because, physically, these people don't express the lines that are accepted as part of the national identity (the myth of the three original races). And since the “racial” characterization in Brazil is done through the phenotype, these people are “convicts” to the situation of eternal Japanese, even after three or four generations, or not mattering how much they share a lifestyle and a cultural universe absolutely Brazilian. The Brazilian society as a whole doesn't recognize them as complete equals, and not even themselves, fact that doesn't happen with the other descendants mentioned above7. How could it establish, then, the subject of the cultural identity of these Japanese immigrants’ descendants? These, according to their physical expressions, are always taken as “Japanese” who live in Brazil, but never only as Brazilian. This subject by itself would be already too complicated. But, inside this panel, there is another fact that came recently. It is the “dekassegui phenomenon” (as it is called in Brazil), or the return of these “Japanese” to Japan. How surprise was to these “Japanese” the fact that, once arriving at Japan, they realized that they are not Japanese! Starting from this point, the research development looked for the identity formulation trajectory of this population, with the primordial focus in the dekassegui subject, which has been, indeed, a reflexion moment between trajectory. THE JAPANESE IMMIGRATION TO BRAZIL AND ITS IDENTITY SUBJECT ACCORDING TO THE HISTORICAL PERIODS Inside of the panel of the migration flows from the turning of the century (XIXXX), which has an expressive importance in Brazilian constitution, the Japanese immigration had some specific particularities, that reflects in its descendants born in the new country. Since the beginning, the discussion about the permission of Asian immigration, such as Japanese, Chinese and others could cause in the Brazilian society. As mentioned above, in Brazil, Asians and Africans were out of the plans of the immigrant’s population selection for the “healthy” composition of the country, and 7 such entrances were not allowed. The “yellow element” (as it used to be called) was not desirable in the Brazilian national formation8. Therefore, a series of polemics that involved the Brazilian society in this period was regarding to the problems caused by the these people's admission. Intellectuals, political, doctors, farmers, among other characters, participated in some debates concerning the inconvenience in accepting this kind of workers, and the problems that could be caused by this admission to a country as Brazil, already so degenerated by the Black and mestizo presence in its territory. This polemic involved some prejudice against the Japanese and Asian population in general, characterizing, since the beginning, the different treatment that this population would start to incorporate. So, while the European immigration was wanted and motivated, because this was part of the eugenics ideal disseminated by the Brazilian government at that time, the Japanese immigration suffered strong attacks, until it obtained its permission, fact that was only possible due to the conjunction of a series of coincident factors. This particularity, which one other immigrants were not victims, ended for causing another quite important particularity for the mentioned subject. It is the time condiction of this immigration. The flow of Japanese immigration is a late flow if compared with others, and inside the period of the “great migrations” to Brazil, this one was the last one9. While the Germany immigration, for example, started in the beginning of the XIX century, the Japanese will only be summing up in the beginning of the XX century, as is showed by table I: TABLE I: Immigrant Entrance to Brazil (1820-1929) Country/ Year 1820-29 1830-39 1840-49 1850-59 1860-69 1870-79 1880-89 Portugal --261 491 63272 53618 67609 104491 Italy --180 5 24 4916 47100 276724 Germany 1984 207 2139 15806 16514 14627 19201 Spain ----10 181 633 3940 29066 Japan --------------Others 7112 2021 2347 28843 34398 60609 23997 Total 9096 2669 4992 108126 110079 193885 453079 8 1890-99 1900-09 1910-19 1920-29 Total 215254 195586 318481 301913 670508 221394 137868 106835 17034 13848 61902 75801 239063 164193 121604 181696 81931 583254 --861 27732 58284 86577 115929 82145 136374 221881 1183018 635438 863714 846645 1321076 1465554 715656 44410741 Source: Morador Internacional: Migração. In: Yoshioka, 1995:80. On the other hand, in concern to the Japanese society, the Japanese immigrants' historical age, when they came to Brazil, is also very important and had a prominent role in this context. With Emperor Meiji's Restoration on January first, 1868 (Honda, 1986:64), significant structural changes began to happen in Japan. The isolation10 was broken, and enormous transformations started to take place inside Japanese society. This transformations made Japan experience its feudal state to new forms of social organization, entering in the international market and in the effective capitalist processes. However, this passage didn't happen in a calm manner. Due the Japanese social structure, until then predominantly agrarian, Japan suffered such serious alterations that was not possible to recompose inside of the Japanese society itself. The population of the country paid a high price for the aggressiveness of the imposed reforms, and one way found to relieve the impasses that the reforms were bringing out was the wide emigration politics adopted by the Japanese government. In the year of 1884 the first emigration agreement was signed between Japan and Hawaii, and, since then, the exit of Japanese was massive (Ohashi, 1991:5). Brazil, due to the situation exposed above, of resistance to the acceptance of this migration, would only participate in this scenery in 1908, being one of the last countries to establish a migratory flow with Japan. Dived in the spirit of the Meiji age, the Japanese immigrants who arrived in Brazilian lands were taken by an extremely nationalist spirit, a love feeling about Japan’s superiority. These immigrants' intention, in the case of a permanence prolonged in Brazil (which was not the first intention of this population, because the immense majority wanted to improve their life in Brazil and to come back to Japan) was to establish in Brazil a colony that truly was an extension of Japan. This idea was shared thoroughly for the authorities as well as the Japanese elite, who motivated and, some times, aided such project economically. (Castro L., 1994). 9 Japanese colonial formations started to grow in Brazil, especially in the sate of São Paulo, later in also Paraná. These colonial formations counted to the support of several incentives that the Japanese government and the colonization companies put available to the emigrated people, such as the existence of schools with Japanese teachers for the maintenance of the Japanese patterns among the children of those emigrated. Besides, many other establishment forms of a kind of “Japanese dominance” inside the Brazilian territory were taken. These Japanese immigrants rooted in Brazil didn't visualize the country as a new place to live nor at least for their children. These would continue to be, as well as their parents were, subjects of the Japanese Empire, which, for that time, was taken as invincible. “Colony” meant a form of maintaining the Japanese life in distant lands, for those subjects that were not finding better living conditions inside of Japan itself. It is important to observe that, if we add to this posture of the Japanese immigrants to Brazil, the natural difficulty of cultural integration that these immigrants had due to the extreme cultural differentiation that involved the two countries, the composition of a whole specific picture is taken inside this process. Such characteristics, if added, favored the isolation of this group. This without we penetrate a lot in the importance of the racial factor that was present in this situation from Japan’s side. If Brazil saw the Asian as an inferior race, without any doubt, this same connotation was shared by Japanese too, that had gone through the shogunato period in 300 years of isolation from the rest of the world because of the fear “to contaminate themselves”. (Ohashi, 1991:5) For sure, all these factors that specifically characterized this migratory flow ended for contemplating in its struture in Brazil. In a especially accentuated way, these immigrants were convicted of a “return spirit”, consequence of the extreme nationalism Meiji they were carrying when they arrived in Brazil. This fact proportionate them even more accentuated reasons for a coexistence in colony. In general, the children of Japanese immigrants from that period (called nisseis11) have double citizenship, because their parents, persevering in the idea of returning to Japan, registered their children in the Japanese government offices that existed in Brazil, because these children must be Japanese. A whole apparatus from the Japanese government was present in Brazil for making this process possible and available. There was no reason to integrate their children or themselves in a country like Brazil, because it would not be definitive. The isolation among their pairs sounded more coherent, as a way to preserve the Japanese patterns among their descendants. The government support only reinforced this idea. 10 The expectation of a return to Japan that these immigrants brought, and the concept of Brazil as a territory of passage, changed, however, into frustrated ideas and conceptions, according to the directions that the Brazilian and international history started to acquire at that time. The event of Second World War was a turning point of new postures for Japanese that were living in Brazil. After this period of more intense Japanese immigration to Brazil (1925-1941), this migration suffers a great shock with its total interruption during the forties’, in consequence of Second World War. The migratory process was interrupted in 1942 and it would be only retaken in 1952, ten years later, even so, never again with the same intensity. In the table below, it is possible to analyze this migratory flow growing, since its beginning until its interruption. TABLE II: Japanese Immigrants in Brazil (1908-1941) Year 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 Immigrants 830 31 948 28 2.909 7.122 3.675 65 165 3.899 5.599 3.022 Year 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 Immigrants 1.013 840 1.041 895 2.673 6.330 8.407 9.084 11.169 16.648 14.076 5.632 Year 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 Total Immigrants 11.678 24.494 21.390 9.611 3.306 4.557 2.524 1.414 1.268 1.548 188.431 Source: Japanese Consulate (cited in Ohashi, 1991). During the ten years between the War (1942-1952), Japanese here rooted, had to deal with the interruption of this flow, and also, they had to absorb the shock of the defeat of Japan (that until then was represented as invincible and above everyone). Besides, the Japanese government's abandonment, and the Brazilian government's persecution were especially tough on them. 11 This period was extremely disturbing for the Japanese immigrants in Brazil, starting for the antagonistic position that the two countries adopted during the War. In Brazil, Getúlio Vargas' dictatorial government established the immigrants assimilation’s imposition to the national standarts. The several foreign groups that composed the Brazilian population lost the reasonable freedom that they had been until then, and they started to suffer such impositions as the prohibition of the use of their national languages. A mandate in April 18th, 1938 prohibited the existence of the foreigners' associations, so thoroughly used by Japanese. Such facts reached all the groups rooted in Brazil. Even so, in the Japanese case, thanks to the particularities already mentioned, these impositions were drastic. From the situation of cultural isolation inside of the colonies, sharing a way of life like that one thanks to the coming technical and instrumental support from Japan, these immigrants pass to an illegal situation in the use of these conditions. Japanese were forbidden to practice their old cultural expressions in Brazilian territory. Plus they could not educate their children as they were doing until then, in the strict Japanese way, thinking about the return time. They were pressed by the politics of imposed assimilation, which resulted in being quite painful for this group, because they were the last immigrated group at that period, and therefore, the least assimilated. Besides, the cultural distance hindered the assimilation a great deal. The nationalist spirit and the idea or returning also contributed for the difficulty in this assimilation. Even more difficult, however, that these impositions of the Brazilian government, it would be the hard reality of facing the Japanese defeat in the War. For the subjects of the Japanese Empire in that moment, this was an unthinkable alternative, because Japan was composed invincible. Besides, the Japanese defeat meant the abandonment of these Japanese rooted abroad for part of Japan. It was, therefore, a generalized disillusion to these individuals. These immigrants had followed years believing in the invincibility of Japan. The Japanese defeat created a strong disillusion among these people. Pained by the daily reality that they were living in Brazil, the hope of a prosperous return to a winner Japan used to compose a dream of happiness. The deception of the defeat came in the measure of the imaginary illusion that these immigrants had in relation to Japan. The acceptance of the Japanese defeat ended in provoking these immigrants' to have significant changes in relation to their postures in concern to Brazil. Brazil started to be represented, since that moment, as an adoption country, a possible Homeland. As a consequence of this factors, a definitive permanence in Brazil begins to grow as a viable destiny. 12 At the same time, if on one hand, the defeat of Japan in the Second War made the visualization of Brazil as definitive Homeland, on the other hand, other factors also ended for influencing in this condition, as the existence of a new generation of “Japanese” born in Brazilian lands, the nisseis. However, as mentioned, these children born before initiate the war were registered in Brazilian offices, but in Japanese offices too, in case they were insured the right to the Japanese citizenship for the moment of the return. With the war, this changes, and the presence of a great number of nisseis born without double nationality starts. Plus, much deeper than this legal subject, it was the subject of these people's cultural identity itself. If, until the War, these children had received the help of an entire structure set up for their education and socialization in the patterns of Japanese life, with the eruption of the War, this structure doesn't survive. So, the socialization of these children become predominantly Brazilian, even if their parents pressure them for the Japanese social patterns inside their homes. With the end of the War, Brazil was configured as a victorious nation, and the prospect of a permanence in that country, permited to the Japanese immigrants to allow a larger involvement of their children into the Brazilian national life. The Japanese immigration is rebuilt after this period as mentioned above. In 1952 the flow is retaken. Even so, these new immigrants would already arrive in Brazilian lands with quite different conceptions from the ones that had been their predecessors. Never more the Japanese immigration would be the same as it was before, and many of these new immigrants already arrived here, tired by the war, with a definitive intention of a new life in Brazil. The same numbers reached years before would not be retaken. Not even the own style of those emigrated would be the same. Many were not tillers, but instead, liberal professionals, technicians, merchants, etc.. And many did not come accompanied by a family, but instead, alone (Cardoso, 1972). The following table represents the Japanese immigratory flow to Brazil after the War, and, as it is shown, this flow goes in a decrescent proportion. TABLE III: Japanese Immigrants in Brazil (1952-1986) Year 1952 1953 1954 Immigrants 261 1.928 3.119 Year 1964 1965 1966 Immigrants 1.138 903 937 Year 1976 1977 1978 Immigrants 1.126 682 584 13 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 4.051 4.912 6.147 6.586 7.123 7.746 6.842 2.605 2.124 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1.070 597 496 435 542 352 492 239 254 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 Total 500 562 417 329 289 261 258 363 66.270 Source: Japanese Consulate (cited in Ohashi, 1991) A new reality of the Japanese immigration to Brazil was happening. New generations of descendants (the sanseis, the immigrants' grandsons, many of them mestizos) summed up these positions. Brazil now was the definitive country for the immigrants and their descendants. Their lives were already organized in the country that had welcomed them. Since the events of the War, the Japanese immigrants isolation was greatly dissolved inside the Brazilian society, with the concept of Brazil as a new Homeland and the assimilation to the Brazilian cultural patterns among their descendants. However, a subject is still alive, mainly in concern to this integration of the subsequent generations. If the Brazilian identity is accepted, and, more and more, since these events, why do these immigrants' children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, born in Brazilian territory, still are associated in Brazil as Japanese, and are called Japanese, even after all these years? An answer for such a problem would be related, accordingly, to the racial concepts in the pattern of Brazilian identity, just as having been approached before. A NEW HISTORICAL PHENOMENON”12 STAGE: THE “DEKASSEGUI Almost one century after the first migratory relationships initiate between Brazil and Japan, in fact 83 years after its beginning (Ninomiya, 1992:13)13, an event that would change this group of emigrated people from Japan in a very significant way, 14 and its descendants, happens for the first time. It is another stage of the process of migratory relationships between Brazil and Japan, and it was denominated by several authors, as “dekassegui phenomenon”. The accurate date is not precise, but the Brazilian emigration in the national history begins in some moment of the eighties, between the years 1984 and 1987. The eighties has characterized a new migratory reality to the Brazilian society. The eighties of this century, to Brazil, went through a bitter and extense economic recession. A frustrated feeling and disillusion was generalized among the Brazilian population that road (after the so expected period of democratic opening) its life conditions decline strongly, day after day. The expectations successively frustrated about the resolution of the inflationary problem, added to a series of failures on the social conditions that became, for some, absolutely degrading, were building, little by little, a feeling of widespread pessimism inside of the Brazilian society. All data point for the same conclusions: With the re-democratization of the country, settles in Brazil a period of deep social and economic lowering, mainly in the medium sectors of the society. This crisis had already been originated in the previous governments, but it takes unsustainable proportions in the governments Sarney and Collor. The disarray of the inflation achieves unbearable levels in some periods, making the population progressively loses its life standards. This crisis reaches, mainly, the middle class - large sector of most part of the emigrant Brazilian contingent. The beginning of the nineties, with the taking of the government's ownership Collor, marks the period of the dekassegui’s boom, as it used to be called. Some facts would propitiate such conjuncture, besides the new government's hallucinating posture. In Brazil, the descendants of Japanese have reached a better social position inside of the Brazilian society, in the following decades after Second World War. These people's great social mobility was associated to the other factors, such as the own entail of help from the colony and the family structure composed since the times of the immigration. It was still favored by the national conjuncture of Brazilian economic expansion after the Second War, that had its culminating point in the seventies, with the “economic miracle”. Finally, a series of associated factors ended up composing a favorable picture for the social ascension of most part of the Japanese immigrants, and this is even bigger for its descendants. (Cardoso, 1972). These people's insert in an economic strip predominantly medium is a reality since the seventies and following years. In a research disclosed by the Magazine Japão 15 Aqui, “more than 60% of the family bosses (descending of Japanese) are defined as middle class.” (Japão Aqui, 1997). According to data obtained through the Center of Nipo-Brazilian Studies, that accomplished a census of the population in focus in the years 1987-1988, these people's characterization above the average Brazilian salary was proven statistically, which proves that the descendants of Japanese are not in the low strata of the Brazilian society, but instead, distributed among the middle classes, predominantly (as can be showed by Table IV). Therefore, these people were hardly affected for the economic crises to the referred period. TABLE IV: Brazil and the Japanese Descendants’s Average wages Wage’s Distribuition Brazil (1) Japanese Descendants (2) Until 1 minimun salary * 12,0% 3,26% 1 to 5 minimum salaries 49,9% 19,85% 5 to 10 minimum salaries 19,7% 20,47% 10 to 20 minimum salaries 10,3% 15,49% Above 20 minimum sararies 5,7% 16,09% Source: Center of “Estudos Nipo-Brasileiros” (cited in Ohashi, 1991) (1) Refer to 1986 (2) Refer to 1987 * The average of incomes in Brazil is counted by the minimum salaries institucionalized by the government law. Nowadays, the minimum salary value is about USD $120.00 dollars. 16 Beside this crisis in Brazil, and, in a certain way, in all of Latin America, a new political and social conjuncture was verified in the new international context. The eighties had a rising acceleration in the Japanese industry, mainly in the automobile industry and eletro-electronic industry, that blunt as the “head” of the Japanese economy. Many were the factors that propitiated this event, however, it doesn't compete me to analyze them here. Therefore, the result of an economy in such high expansion, added to the presence of a well educated population, could not be other: labor shortage for the lower positions on the professional scale. On its side, Japan was full mainly with immigrant workers from practically the entire Asian Southwest, besides a contingent quite expressive from the Middle East. The country was filling its non qualified positions with such foreigners, trying to find a way for the impasse between the need and the “it refuses” of these undesirable illegal immigrants to the growth of the Japanese economy. However, in spite of the these illegal immigrants' need for the Japanese industry, especially for the medium and small industry (which would not survive without these foreigners' presence), the Japanese government came across a situation of growing uncomfort as a consequence of such presence inside the Japanese society, with rigid homogeneous patterns. One solution found for such undesirable illegal immigrants' entrance, was the search of Japanese workers, found among Japanese people that lived in other countries. Once these people would be Japanese workers, it would be like a relief in the recruiting of labor shortage coming from abroad, because they culturally would not cause problems inside of the Japanese society, since they were Japanese. Obviously, the principal source of workers in such conditions was founded in Latin America, due to the coincident and opposite factors14. The isseis - name given to the Japanese immigrants rooted at other countries - were, in this way, guests to come back to Japan for filling the labor shortage in the lowest qualified sections. That’s the way that the “dekassegui phenomenum” started. Coincident contexts promoted the origin of a new reality to both countries. After the first contacts between the resident isseis in Latin America - specially in Brazil, which is the country where the Japanese community is bigger - and the Japanese companies, the beggining of a migratory flow was inevitable. According to both contexts, the first shy exits of isseis that came back to Japan became a migratory flow that, year after year, became more extensive, and its biggest moment (or the dekassegui boom, as refered) occurred in 1991, bringing significant changes inside this flow. 17 Before the year 1990, only isseis could have the rights to work legally inside the Japanese territory. According to the Japanese laws, the subsequent generations after the isseis would not be entitled of working legally in Japan. However, these generations were already going massively to Japan, and they were finding positioning inside of that economy, once most part of the isseis already were advanced age and they constitute a limited number of people. But, in this period, the descendants of Japanese were considered illegal immigrants inside of that territory, however, this fact didn't mean the suppression of the these people's entrance. On the contrary, year by year, these entrances were intensified. The forms of these immigrants' entrance were through tourist visas, that could be lingering and substituted for visiting relatives’ visas. The forms to be recruiting by the companies were the same released to the other illegal immigrants in Japan. A whole series of problems was caused by such a picture, such as exploitation of work, fraudulent blackmails, retention of Brazilian passports, among many others. It was even registered physical imprisonment of the immigrants. Since the Japanese wages are extremely high for the Brazilian standards, a large number of Brazilian descendants of Japanese embarked to Japan, heading for heavy and unskilled labor, in compensation, for higher pay15. In June of 1990, the rules of the Japanese migratory policy was changed, at least in the concern to the its descendants' problem. Since that date, with the reform of the Immigration Law Controlling, these descendants acquire the right to work in Japan. According to each generation, a specific time is allowed, three years for the nisseis and one year for the sanseis. (Yoshioka, 1995). In the case of a larger permanence intention, these visas can be lingering. The other generations didn't participate on this reform Law process. With this reform in the migratoty policy for the descendants of Japanese, an even bigger number of descendants (the isseis nowadays are minority) from different generations, mestizos (descending of Japanese with other several groups), and also spouses without Japanese ancestry (called spouses non-nikkeis) emigrated from Brazil to Japan for work. Already in October, 1990 (only four months after the Law’s promulgation), “the non-nikkeis people's proportion had already surpassed the isseis one.” (Ninomiya org., 1992:143). In Table V is possible to analyze the increasing of this migratory flow, and its boom by the year 1990, just after the Law. 18 TABLE V: Visas granted by the Japanese General Consulate in São Paulo and projection to Brazil (1983 to 1993) Year 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 Visas 3.811 4.311 6.553 6.639 5.842 8.602 18.328 48.189 61.500 41.828 26.603 (2) Projection to Brazil (1) 5.445 6.159 9.361 9.484 8.346 12.189 26.183 68.841 87.858 59.754 38.004 (2) Source: Diário Nippak, 12/3/1993 (cited in Yoshioka, 1995) (1) Projection done by Yoshioka (2) Until September, 1993 Counting a population of 100.000 to 200.000 Brazilians residing in Japan in these last ones 6 or 7 years16, it is not possible anymore to ignore some aspects related to this context. It is fact that most of the coming problems are derivative from this migratory flow is related with subjects such as the cultural differences, the shock of cultures, etc.. For the Japanese society, and inside of the Japanese community living in Brazil, this fact is evident, and in the several publishings that discloses on the theme, always is present the problem of the cultural differentiation, the adaptation problems, and subjects from this order (Chigusa, 1994; Ninomiya, 1992; Yoshioka, 1995; Ohashi, 1991). However, if there is such a big concern about these aspects, it means that the cultural models that these people have as a reference pattern is basically Brazilian. Therefore, this fact stood out the identity problem of that population, who is taken as Japanese in Brazil because they have a Japanese face and features, but, on the 19 other hand, they have the Brazilian behavior and cultural pattern. This can be justified only by the patterns of conceptualization through the phenotype that exists in Brazil. “If they have a Japanese face, they are Japanese”, and as it is known to all, Japanese is not part of Brazil’s historical past of the nation’s construction. Sadly rooted to an ancestral isolation, even further today, the descendants who live in Brazil think in this way, and differ themselves as the “Japanese colony” in detriment of the Brazilian population. When, however, these Brazilians, that are considered Japanese in Brazil, go to a foreign land, that it is Japan itself, they are confronted by the odd experience of being recognized as typically Brazilian, even if physically they carry the features exactly the same to those of the Japanese people. The complete perception of this Brazilian identity doesn't happen only for the fact that they be currently pointed out by Japanese as Brazilians, but also for the fact of the cultural shock that they must face. They run across with the shut Japanese society, one which they don't participe, in the great majority, nor in habits, nor in ideas, and nor at least in the more basic cultural factor of all, which is the language. The widest perception of the Brazilian identity from the part of these immigrant dekasseguis is revealed, therefore, exactly as a consequence of this migration process. In front of the Japanese society, these individuals participate in the singular experience of recognizing themselves as Brazilians, in the smallest details of the everyday. Face to a population physically similar to them, they realized themselves more foreign than never. THE “DEKASSEGUI PHENOMENUM” AND THE PERCEPTION OF A “NEW” IDENTITY The arrival to Japan reveals for most part of these emigrant workers a new avaliation of their identity patterns, since until such a moment, they were rescued as Japanese. With the arrival to Japan is evidence, since the beginning, the first difficulty: “they are not Japanese”. Even if we take the differences between generations, all the emigrants feel this situation, including the nisseis. The only comfort on the arrival is propitiated by the other Brazilian colleagues' presence, also in dekassegui, that are easily found now, due to the large extention of the flow. This presence of people “equal myself” is the relief point of these first impacts, harshly felt17. Even for those that were in closer contact with the Japanese culture in Brazil, in the great majority of the cases, the nisseis, that bring memories of the their parents' 20 Japanese, even for them, the adaptation difficulty is immense. Japan today is not the their parents' Japan, the language has changed - nowadays the Japanese language is full of English expressions, impossible to identify for those who learned old Japanese. Many nisseis that knew how to speak their parents' Japanese language, when they arrive in Japan, they are treated like senior citizens, out of fashion. Besides, there is also an aggravating factor of this cultural distance. It is the original province from these nisseis’ parents, which was, many times, an outlying province in Japan at the time of the these Japanese immigrants' exit, including sometimes, very culturally distant, with different dialects from central Japan18. Now, the descendants' of Japanese immense majority uses Brazilian Portuguese as their maternal language. Besides this language factor, which is essential, many other forms of behavior come in shock with the Japanese notions. The extremely rigid habits make a stir imprisonment and the rhythm of the work, highly disciplined, causes a lot of discomfort among the Japanese-Brazilians. In the most usual daily details, there is always the sensation of being “a fish out of water”, because these people's cultural behavior diverge substantially from the Japanese patterns. In the most basic aspects of the day by day, its habits are essentially Brazilian, fact that is notified easily in contrast to the Japanese cultural pattern. Food, clothing, body hygiene, discipline rules, personal relationships, daily habits are basically different. In all these aspects, what is noticed, is the mark of the Brazilian presence. The alimentary habits, one of the most difficult thing to modify (Castro, 1994), are always mentioned as one of the most common cravings the dekasseguis feel toward Brazil. “Rice, bean, steak and salad”, daily Brazilian dishes, became desirable consumation ideals to these emigrants (the prices of these “cheap” dishes for the Brazilian patterns end exaggeratedly high in Japan, due to its great demand among them). The clothes worn by the dekasseguis are Brazilian clothes (such as jeans, that cause a certain negative impression among Japanese), the food prepared inside of its homes is the Brazilian food, the forms of personal relationships are Brazilian too. To speak loud inside of public transportation (train, subway), to display physical affection such as holding hands and hugging among couples, to greet with a kiss on the cheek, the public kiss among couples, the physical contact and the approach of the body, hygiene habits, behavior inside of the work atmosphere, the forms of defrauding the laws and Japanese rules, that are attributed by these immigrants as a positive factor of the famous “Brazilian way” (in Portuguese, “jeitinho brasileiro”), all these, and others facts, are the Brazilian cultural behavior, expressed among them. In the most varied aspects, the cultural aspect 21 makes itself evident since the beginning: “We, (Brazilian immigrants) are not like them (Japanese). We are not Japanese”. Even about the most frequent stereotypes of the Japanese identity (like the hardworking, for example), these immigrants, once in Japan, refuse them, and rescue them as particularly Brazilian characteristics. Thus, among the immigrants, it seems there to be a consent that the Brazilians work more than Japanese, which, according to them, makes the Brazilians the most wanted group among all the groups of foreigners working in Japan. This is an important verification, because it is the broken of the Japanese myth as correct and hard-working that they had in Brazil, mainly because of the family influence. They understand themselves, Brazilian, as working more - and at a higher quality - than the Japanese. It takes them in a pride position front to the “other”, the Japanese, whom is being the agent of the discrimination for which they are experiencing. These immigrants point out to the fact that they work a lot, not because they are Japanese (or from origin), but instead, because they are Brazilian, standing out a diferencial line with Japanese and refuting the Brazilian negative image as lazy. When they are in Japan, the myth of Japanese “right, honest, hard-working” falls down, due to a series of disagreements among the two groups, as fraud and exploitations from the part of Japanese. However, it is interesting to notice that, even the aspects that in Brazil are extremely linked to the “Japanese identity” of these people, once in Japan, they are proceeded linked to the Brazilian identity, marking a difference again among both groups, reinforcing the Brazilian identity. Even the body subject, is rescued as something that belongs to these people as Brazilian, and not Japanese. In spite of they share a phenotype similar to the Japanese, the emigrants affirm that is possible to notice a Brazilian from many miles distance in Japan. Through the clothes, or the way of walking, or the hand movements when they speak, from miles distance, without the need to hear the person speaking Portuguese, it’s possible to notice she or he is a Brazilian, and not Japanese. Besides the vestments, the dekassegui refer properly to the body itself, alleging that the Brazilian body is different from the Japanese. However, a new analysis context is done when this group refers to this subject of the body. According to the present racial approaches in Brazil, the “pure” descendants would be 100% biologically Japanese, just as they are characterized in Brazil. However, arriving at Japan, this body 100% Japanese differs from the Japanese body, and it becomes rebuilt as a Brazilian body (also in terms of its more common stereotypes: curvacious and sensual). 22 For more paradoxal than it can seem, the opposition among the “Japanese” and the “Brazilians” is realized in such a deep rooted way when these are in Japan, that they reformulated even their physical lines, besides the cultural ones, since the beginning noticed and revaluated. Besides, once in Japan, the dekassegui, link themselves to the patterns of Brazilian identity, that in Brazil, were hidden. Once in Japan, these Japanese descendants start to rescue patriotic values in relation to Brazil, that there, were absent. In Japan, everything that comes from Brazil it is extremely valued. In that way, they started to value some symbols from the Brazilian identity that had never been valued before, as the Brazilian music, for example, the samba, which in Brazil, these people are not used to listenning to. According to this revaluation of the Brazilian’s patterns, patriotic manifestations become frequent, with the intention of demarcating between “them (the Japanese) and us (the Brazilian)”. Some examples: the use of buttons and T-shirts with the Brazilian flag. Flags are also present in all the stores and establishments of Brazilian owners and in the parties promoted by Brazilians. They rescued national symbols frequently, such as flags, the language, carnival, music and so on... The Brazilian immigrants in Japan live and behave as Brazilian, although they look like Japanese because of their descendance. Remarkably, the values that participates most in the imaginary of the Brazilian national identity are those more in evidence through these immigrants, like, for example, the “human warm heart” of the Brazilian people. Due to all these factors exposed, there is an entire understanding from the part of these immigrants, that they are not Japanese, although many times they have been induced to believe in such a thing in Brazil. This former belief happens, partly because of their families, part because of the Japanese community living in Brazil, and part also because of the whole Brazilian society, which point these people as Japanese as a consequence of their faces. But, once in Japan, the revaluation of their identity takes wide proportions. While these people are in Japan, Brazil assumes another importance inside of that context. While they are in Japan, they are not questioned about being or not Brazilian. There, they know what they are. This perception of “being a Brazilian” happens as a consequence of other reasons too, besides the cultural shock. This perception is also revealed from part of the Japanese society, that it rejects these immigrants (descendants of Japanese), as Japanese, at the all times. Thus, these immigrants become victims of a treatment sharply differentiated inside of the Japanese society, fact that these people didn't 23 foresee while they were in Brazil, because they usually attributed themselves as Japanese there. The different treatment is obvious, and they are present all the time, everywhere. Not only in the factories, but in a general way, in the whole society. They show that they physically resemble Japanese, due to their phenotype expressions, but in fact, they are not. An this point, it seems to have a big contradiction inside the Japanese society. On one hand, Japan has been accepted these immigrants as legal ones just because of their Japanese ancestry, but, on the other hand, the Japanese society does not accept them as equals, and discriminate against them all the time, in many situations19. This discriminatory attitude by the Japanese society grows a ressentment feeling among the Brazilian emigrants, who were taught during their whole lives that Japan was their second (or even first) Homeland. Therefore, both associated factors - Brazilian cultural expressions side by side with the discrimination of the Japanese society - put these descendants in a reflexive position about their own identity. The perception of being Brazilian occured in a calm way. Sometimes, it is very painful for the immigrants who had lived their entire life in Brazil believing to be Japanese, due mainly to their family upbringing. To have this belief during an entire life and to come across with the situation that this is false, can bring strong disillusions, mainly in relation to the Japanese people itself, that is who, indeed, is denying this “illusion” face to face. The immigrants are frequentely reffered in Japan as “gaijin20”, and this word is not wellcome among them, because this is an expressive sign of the discrimination for which one they are going through. The identity revaluation stands out as very important. If this process had never happened, perhaps many descendants of Japanese would just conform themselves in continuing living in Brazil believing in a illusioned immunity of being Japanese. With the occurrence of this migratory flow, not anymore. It is impossible to ignore the changes that happen when they face Japan as a foreign land. These people return to Brazil after this singular experience, with a new concept of their identities, promoted by the migratory moment. FINAL REMARKS: 24 The dekassegui phenomenum is a reflection moment because, once it places people physically similar in a same place, it forces them to distinguish themselves according to other parameters. It’s an opportune moment of reavaluation of these individuals' identity, descending of Japanese immigrants, who, thanks to the physical appearance similar to their ancestors, they carry this stigma as mark of their identities in Brazil. Once they participate in such situation through different physical and cultural expressions, these people can be inserted in two worlds, and, at the same time, in none. The identities concepts doesn't need to be rigid, and, in fact, they are not. Such concepts as this one of identity and nationality “are not fixed, nor perennial” (Rúben, 1984). They change and they are re-done according to each presented context. In the case of these Japanese descendants, exactly because they have penetration in these two contexts, even if in fact they don't feel in any of them, there is these individuals' possibility to them being transported from an identity to another, according to each case21. In Japan, this identity resembles to do clearer, because there they don't have doubts: they are Brazilian. Brazilian who are just working in Japan, are passing through. This migration process provides this identifying, thanks to all those factors that were exposed, so much in relation to the cultural shock, as well as in relation to the Japanese rejection and discrimination. Coming back to Brazil, this perception acquired in foreign land stays, and, sometimes, it is better positioned. But, on the other hand, if in Japan everything is more “precise” (of course they are not Japanese there), in Brazil, other contexts begin to be part of the game again, and not always the situation of defined identity in Japan is solved with the return moment. In Brazil, the differentiation standards are others, and some factors act in favor to turn denser this denomination of Brazilian or Japanese identity. The occurrence of contexts already commented, of phenotype judgements, can be still associated to the other factors, as the pressure of the Japanese community, that “insists” in differing itself from the rest of the Brazilian population22. As a Japanese descendant who dedicate her studies to this issue says: “The problems that don’t allow a good adaptation to the society (from part of the Japanese descendants) are associeted to the difficulty of assuming their own identity. In the identity, a person is recognized herself as different from the other ones, but at the same time equal to all the others. It can be that one of the reasons for which it costs the woman and the man nisseis so much to the conquest of their identity, is because they cannot be considered the same to the others. They know they are different from the other ones but they cannot be completed with the acceptance that are also the same to the other people.” (Oshiro, 1985:157). This 25 difficulty of accepting as “equal” to the others is because they are pointed for everybody (and not only for the Japanese community), everyday, as different, even if them want to be the same. In this sense, the migration process can be a point of important reflection, where the perception that they are the same to all those that they have left back - the Brazilian - (in behavior and cultural expressions), can help them to conquer their identity. To arrive at Japan and to notice themselves as Brazilian, sometimes can be even a “relief”, because there, their identity is better defined. There, they know they have a Japanese face, but the soul belongs to a Brazilian. Concluding, as a consequence of this migratory process, which is increasing year by year, nowadays, Brazil is inside Japan. As mentioned above, it is much easier to migrate to Japan today, because these people no longer miss the Brazilian things, those things are also there. The importance of this dekassegui process and its people is undeniable. Not only its economic importance, but much more than that, the cultural importance. Nowadays, in Japan, there is a presence of a true Brazilian community, disclosing the Brazilian culture in the most varied aspects. The Brazilian food, the Brazilian language, the Brazilian way of life. And it is not interesting - and also ironic, I would say - to verify that, exactly who is carrying this Brazil inside of Japan are these immigrants, the dekasseguis, who are considerated “Japanese” in Brazil? Perhaps today, in any other place of the world is happening such a strong penetration of the Brazilian culture, disclosed in the most diverse ways. A true Brazilian community inside of the Japanese territory, carrying by these people characterized as Japanese in Brazil. Would not it be better to say, by Brazilians? Certainly this fact brings an incentive for a revaluation of those paradigms in concern to identity, especially the phenotype issue. After all, there are 200,000 Brazilians living now in Japan. I think it’s beautiful to see that who is responsible for this relationship between Brazil and Japan are these immigrants. The migration provided this moment. These people bring much more than money to Brazil, and they carry much more than arms for working to Japan. 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VAINER, Carlos B. - “Estado e imigração internacional: da imigração à emigração” in: Emigração e Imigração internacionais no Brasil Contemporâneo Programa interinstitucional de avaliação e acompanhamento das migrações internacionais no Brasil, Volume 1, São Paulo: FNUAP, Campinas, September 1995. 31 VIANNA, Oliveira - Populações Meridionais do Brasil: Populações Rurais do Centro-Sul, Volume 1, 7th Brazilian edition, Ed. Itatiaia Limitada/Ed. Federal University Fluminense (EDUFF), Belo Horizonte/Niterói, 1987. YOSHIOKA, Reimei - Porque migramos do e para o Japão - Os exemplos dos bairros das Alianças e dos atuais dekasseguis, Massao Ohno Editor, São Paulo, 1995. END NOTES 1. This paper is derivated from a my research made during my Master’s Degree at the University of Campinas, under the orientation of Professor Teresa Sales. This research was composed by a field research and theoretical approaches, both of them composing a final dissertation. 2. The representation of this migratory flow, through the word “dekassegui”, derived from the Japanese use to this word, that originally meant “to leave home to work in other lands”, and it was applied for the case of Japanese that left the remote areas to the north and the south of Japan in search of better employment and survival conditions in the industrialized areas from the center, like Tokyo and Osaka, during bad times (Kawamura, 1994). Assimilated to the Portuguese vocabulary and the Brazilian reality, this same word took the meaning of the these Japanese immigrants' descendants' representation, that leave Brazil in search of better employment and survival conditions in its parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents’ land. 3. I call these flows as “inverse” because, as it is known, the foreign immigrants' flow always were looking to come to Brazil, and not the opposite, I mean, Brazilians looking to live abroad. 4. This problem was already present during the great changes of the Imperial period, as the Independence of the country and the worry of which nation would be being composed, after all. However, in ends of the century XIX this subject makes itself much stronger, involving the speech of a series of intellectuals, political, and many others representative characters of the society around the national subject. 5. Oracy Nogueira built an entire analysis where he denominates the racial prejudice in two ways: the “origin prejudice” type found in the USA, that has as 32 fundamental line the fact of adopting a racial classification in agreement with the individual's genetic origin, even if physically these people don't carry more the characteristic features of the race, as the color of the skin, for example. The second prejudice form is that one found in Brazil, denominated “prejudice by mark”, because it identifies the individual race through the physical aspects that its presents. As a consequence, even so descending of blacks, it doesn't matter the generation, if the individual’s physical aspects are not characteristic as belonging to the black group (the color of the skin, that it is the most evident), this person can transpass without problems the classificatory barrier of the races in Brazil, and to be considered “white.” The social position can, many times, to be added in favor to this transpassed, fact observed by the author too. 6. It should stand out, however, that the these people's characterization as white occurs due to the non rigid patterns of classification about the white in Brazil. In other contexts, as in the USA, for example, a person of Arabic origin would not be considered white. 7. Another fact that proves my hypotheses is that, on the other hand, Brazilians descending or even citizens from other parts of Asia, as Korean, Chinese and Thai, for example, are all recognized as “Japanese” too, inside Brazil. This is due to the physical trait of the “pulled eyes” that is part of the “race” imaginary in Brazil, which belongs to the largest Asian group present, the Japanese. 8. One of the first legal acts of the Brazilian Republic, dated from 1890 (following year after its proclamation), concerned the regulation of the “Immigrants Localization and Entrance Service”, where the following ordinance reads: “First Article - it is entirely free the entrance, in the ports of the Republic, of the capable individuals for the work, since they were not subjects to the criminal action in their country, exempt are the natives from Asia or of Africa, who only can be admitted by authorization of the National Congress, according to the conditions which would be specified.” (Decree Law number 528 from 06/28/1890 - cited in Vainer, 1995:43 - my italics). 9. It seems to be a consent in classifing the turning of the XIX-XX century as the period of the great migrations to Brazil, however, it should be taken as mention that this fact only happens because, in the great majority of times, the coming of Africans to Brazil is ignored as a migratory flow. They are not considered as “immigrant slaves”, but just slaves. The word “immigrant” itself is frequently associated to the idea of free work, which is already excluded by slavery. 10. The historical Japanese period called Tokugawa shogunato (Edo period) took place since the government's Toyotomi family in 1615 until the restoration of the 33 Emperor's power in 1868, called Meiji Revolution's period. During the shogunato, Japan went through a condition of almost 300 years of isolation, and Tokugawa Shogum published an act on June 22, 1636 prohibiting the Japanese to leave or come back to the country. This act was only revoked in 1868, with the reforms of the Meiji Age. 11. According to definition found in Lili Kawamura (1995), nikkeis are the descendants of Japanese born out of Japan, in a general way, and they englobe nisseis (second generation - the Japanese immigrants’ children), sanseis (third generation - the Japanese immigrants’ grandchildren), and yonseis (fourth generation - the Japanese immigrants’ great-grandchildren), etc., besides mestizos (descendants of Japanese with other ethnic groups). The people who live in Brazil but were born in Japan are denominated isseis. Still, other publishings already mention the presence of the gossei in Brazil, the these immigrants' great-greatgreat-grandchildren (fifth generation). 12. Many authors denominate this migratory flow as “phenomenon”, among them, I am refering to Massato Ninomiya (1991), and Charles Chigusa (1994). 13. Ninomiya was refering to the official beginning of the dekassegui process, which is attributed to the year 1991. However, it is thoroughly fact disclosed that this migratory flow had a real beginning much earlier than this official date. 14. The Japanese have immigrated to several places in the world, such as the USA and Canada, for example, besides Latin America. Even so, the immigrants that were ready to accept the Japanese companies invitation to work there were those, obviously, that found some reason of expulsion from their residence countries, as it was the Latin America residents’ case, principal aim to the Japanese companies. 15. It is calculated that a dekassegui man's wage is about US$ 3.000 monthly (with overtimes). The feminine wage is relatively lower, according to the law in that country, and it would be about US$ 2.500. Compared to the Brazilian wages, which was by the year 1991 about US$ 50 monthly (minimum wage), the difference is substantial. That is the main reason for what the Brazilian immigrants accepted the factory jobs in Japan, exercising positions that the huge majority of Japanese is not willing to cover, in the famous 3k jobs (kitanai, kiken and kitsui dirty, painful and dangerous). 16. In 1991 was counted a total of 118.000 Brazilians as dekasseguis in Japan (Ninomiya org., 1992:144); to the year 1993, in June, the estimatives already reached 140.000 Brazilian. In the end of this same year, they had already jumped for 154.650 (International Press - cited in Yoshioka, 1995:89). For the year 1996, 34 in June, the number was 190.000 Brazilian with permanence visa to work in Japan, and among these Brazilian’s enter visas were not included the people with double nationality (nisseis), nor either the isseis, that, added, they count approximately more 30.000 people (data from the Immigration Department of the Japanese Ministry of Justice - cited in Japão Aqui, 1997). If we count the descendants with double citizenship and the isseis, an estimate of 220.000 people have left Brazil to work in Japan. 17. With a larger number of Brazilians in Japan, increasing year by year, and also, the availability of Brazilian products easily found nowadays abroad, this impact no longer makes itself as dramatic than it was in the past. Today, for example, it is possible to find most of the Brazilian products, which are already in the Japanese market. In the cities where there is a large population of Brazilians, it is possible to find pratically everything, from Brazilian food, to medication, books, newspapers, magazines, soap opera video tapes, etc. 18. Many Japanese immigrants in Brazil were from the Okinawa province, that is, until today, a marginal place inside of Japan. 19. The discrimination against Brazilians (as well as other foreign people in general) really happens in Japan. Many cases were reported by the press or even by the immigrants themselves, such as, the impediment of Brazilian entrance in some places in Japan, as safety measures, and so on.... 20. “Gaijin” it is a Japanese word that means foreigner. Even so, this word does not have very elegant connotations. This is especially strong among the Japanese descendants, who understand this word as a sign of discrimitation against them. 21. I am refering here to the fact that, especially today, “to be Japanese” brings some “benefits” to those who carry such characterization (inside of Brazil). According to the moment (if it is favorable or not), they look at themselves from different angles. Many of them (Japanese descendants) take advantages of the possibility of this “double identity” and positioned themselves in different ways, according to the context. In fact, after the Japanese ascension as world economic potency, the category “Japanese” took another representation inside of the Brazilian society, based now on positive connotations, doing, as a consequence, advantageous in certain moments “to be Japanese.” 22. It is interesting to observe the form as the nikkei press (Japanese community in Brazil press) refers to the descendants of Japanese in its reports. If the subject is about Brazil, it is some a fact that happened in that country, the headline’s report certainly will be “a nikkei did something”. On the contrary, if the news is 35 transmitted in Japan, its title will be “a Brazilian did something.” There is the inclusion a on a special page in a very famous Japanese newspaper in Brazil called “Notícias do Japão” (News from Japan) entitled: “Brazilians in Japan”, and not nikkeis in Japan.