“Brazilian” nationality, says Marcela’s identification document (fictitious name), 19, who works at an auto parts factory in Japan. from the Japanese authorities, she is not considered a Japanese citizen.
Marcela’s parents migrated in the 1990s, in the first wave of the dekassegi movement, the influx of Japanese descendants who went to work —at first— temporarily in factories on the archipelago. The idea was to save money and one day come back. For many immigrants, however, that “one day” never came. They stayed, formed families and had children in the country, a generation that does not want to leave for Brazil. “To go back to what?”, asks Marcela. “Even more in the pandemic.”
Today there are 206,000 Brazilians in Japan, according to the most recent data from the Ministry of Justice. Almost 60% have a permanent residency visa, which indicates a tendency to take root.
Based in the country for more than 30 years, São Paulo lawyer Etsuo Ishikawa provides consulting services to institutions aimed at Brazilians. He has already given several legal advice to those interested in obtaining Japanese citizenship – there is at least one consultation per month on the subject. “Often, they are young people who were born and raised in Japan and never set foot in Brazil. They are Brazilians only on paper”, he says.
“There’s a generation of Nikkei [descendentes de japoneses] who are in Japan to stay, a change from the first immigrants. It is important to think about their future. A not-too-distant future.”
About 43,000 of Brazilians living in Japan are children and young people up to 18 years old. Among them, 4,000 are enrolled in Brazilian colleges, private institutions designed to welcome children of immigrants in the late 1990s. By 2008, more than 100 Brazilian schools had opened. In 2010, the number dropped to 76, among which only 47 were approved by the Ministry of Education of Brazil, which makes it possible for studies carried out in Japan to be validated in Brazil.
Currently, according to data from the Brazilian embassy in Tokyo, there are 36 approved schools, most of them in the prefectures of Aichi and Shizuoka. They play an important role, says consul Aldemo Garcia, of the Brazilian representation in Hamamatsu: with different hours, often longer than those of Japanese schools, they are an alternative for parents who spend long hours at the factories.
“The problem is that Brazilian schools have, on average, only two hours [de aula] of Japanese a week.”
Mastery of the language is considered the main obstacle to the integration of immigrants into Japanese society – and there are those who still live in a type of “Brazilian bubble” in Japan. inability to communicate can lead to a diagnosis of autism or ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder).”
Studies indicate that children are at risk of feeling “lost” in the comings and goings between Brazil and Japan, facing difficulties when trying to develop Portuguese and Japanese at the same time. That’s what Giulia (not her real name), 16: born in the interior of São Paulo, says, she lived from 3 to 6 years old in Japan, went to Brazil and stayed until she was 11, and returned to Japan. Today, she attends a Brazilian school of Aichi.
“I wanted to learn Japanese, but so far I haven’t been able to”, says the student from São Paulo, who can’t wait to start doing “Arubaito”, the temporary job that, in general, does not require higher education and often does not require proficiency in the language. japanese.
With no prospect of entering a university, investing in a professional qualification or entrepreneurship, there are young Brazilians looking for jobs as workers, as their parents did. “Often, the parents’ dream is not the same as the children’s”, says researcher Nilta Dias, from the Department of Luso-Brazilian Studies at Sophia University, in Tokyo. “Parents may want their children to take advantage of the opportunity they didn’t have to study and aim for a better future; young people may prefer to earn money at the factory, thinking about the immediate present”, highlights she, who has been researching the topic since 1999.
In the 2000s, says Dias, it was very rare to see Brazilian students at the university. Today, he ponders, it is more common to find foreign students on campus – it is estimated that around 500 young Brazilians, graduates of Japanese or Brazilian schools, managed to reach higher education.
“I always say: each case is different. Yes, there are young people going to factories; but there are many going to universities, exchanges, technical courses. Who have become nurses, entrepreneurs and a series of professions. Who are models to motivate the new generations. “
Brazilian consulates and NGOs have been holding educational and cultural events to raise awareness of the importance of education, including the most basic one for those who intend to stay “forever” —or at least for a long time—in the Asian country: literacy in the Japanese language. .
The idea of these initiatives is to strengthen ties with Brazil and, at the same time, integration with Japan. Natalia Oliveira Takahashi, 24, understands well what it’s like to live between the two worlds. She was born in Nishio and, since she was little, studied in Japanese school in the morning and in Brazilian school in the afternoon. She is fluent in both languages. “From 7 to 12, I had a really nice teacher, who didn’t just teach Portuguese, but told me about the culture beyond Brazil that you saw in soap operas and news”, says she, who has visited the South American country until today. only three times, on vacation.
Natalia studied international politics at Sophia University – she was one of Dias’ students. She graduated in 2020 and currently works in the marketing field in Tokyo. “I was lucky, my parents always encouraged me. Not only financial support, but welcome, advice, all this makes a difference to our education.”
She considers herself Brazilian and Japanese at the same time, but since her university days, in contact with other cultures, she says she prefers to see herself as a “global citizen”, that is, a global citizen. “I have these two cultures rooted, but I try to think that I’m not just that: I’m part of the world.”
Source: Folha
