Interviews

1. Moved to Japan as my dekasegi father called on me (Japanese)

2. Facing hardships in Japan (Japanese)

3. The difference between Nikkei community in Oizumi and Brazil (Japanese)

4. Change in community after the collapse of Lehman Brothers (Japanese)

5. Accepted by Japanese society as I learned more Japanese (Japanese)

6. From being a dekasegi to a long-term resident (Japanese)

7. Challenges of Brazilian community in Japan (Japanese)

8. Change of identity (Japanese)

9. The term Nikkei (Japanese)

10. My daughter’s identity (Japanese)

11. Starting my own business as a graphic designer after the collapse of Lehman Brothers (Japanese)

12. On becoming a Japanese national (Japanese)

13. Letting people know I am from Brazil (Japanese)

14. Oizumi-machi is my hometown (Japanese)

Paulo Issamu Hirano

(b. 1979) Sansei Nikkei Brazilian who lives in Oizumi-machi in Gunma prefecture. He runs his own design studio.

Facing hardships in Japan (Japanese)

(Japanese) The first hardship I faced was the language, as you can imagine. In the early days, of course, I could only speak Portuguese, but yes, I went to Japanese language school, so I think I was able to read and write hiragana and katakana at certain level.

I started going to a public school soon after I came to Japan, and since Japanese schools do not flunk students, I was at the age of fifth graders, so in the elementary school, I took fifth-grade classes, and I couldn’t read the textbooks. I remember that it was hard to follow the classes. It was the language. I think I had a hard time with the language.

Other than the language, I also had a hard time with customs. What we thought was common was not acceptable in Japan. For example, in Brazil we brought chewing gum, snacks, and money to school and wore whatever we liked to wear. And I went to school in Japan with the same mindset, I mean at first, so people around me might have thought that I was strange, they might have felt that way. But no one said anything to me before I came to Japan or even after, in the early days here, so what I thought was acceptable might have disturbed other children.

Brazil customs (social) dekasegi education foreign workers languages Nikkei in Japan

Date: October 18, 2016

Location: Gunma, Japan

Interviewer: Shigeru Kojima

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Paulo Issamu Hirano was born in São Paulo in January, 1979. As a Sansei whose grandparents are from Kumamoto Prefecture, he grew up in the Monte Kemel region near Liberdade. In 1989, he moved to Japan as his father, who had come as a dekasegi, called on him. Ever since, he has lived in Oizumi-machi in Gunma Prefecture. At first he was having a hard time with the language, but he made more friends as he learned Japanese. Currently he supports the Brazilian community as a graphic designer with his Japanese skills. In 2009, he started his own business and runs a design studio now. He publishes free magazines that introduce Oizumi-machi. He dedicates his life to making Oizumi-machi a Brazil town. (August, 2017)

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