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.

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

(Japanese) In my early days in Japan, when I couldn’t understand Japanese, I think that people treated me differently, in a discriminatory way. But I’m not really sure if it was because I’m a foreigner or Brazilian. I had a hard time getting along with people around me, as some of them said to me, “Go back to Brazil” or I had things stolen at school. But at the same time, I think that I was partly responsible because I didn’t know about Japan well enough, and that things would have been different if I’d had a better understanding.

So, like I said, I’m not sure if it was discriminatory to begin with, because as I learned more Japanese, I was able to make more friends and even people who disliked me, they also got friendly, so it might have been because we couldn’t communicated enough. I don’t think I’ve experienced discrimination after I learned Japanese.

Brazilians discrimination interpersonal relations 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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