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

Moved to Japan as my dekasegi father called on me (Japanese) Facing hardships in Japan (Japanese) The difference between Nikkei community in Oizumi and Brazil (Japanese) Change in community after the collapse of Lehman Brothers (Japanese) Accepted by Japanese society as I learned more Japanese (Japanese) From being a dekasegi to a long-term resident (Japanese) Challenges of Brazilian community in Japan (Japanese) Change of identity (Japanese) The term Nikkei (Japanese) My daughter’s identity (Japanese) Starting my own business as a graphic designer after the collapse of Lehman Brothers (Japanese) On becoming a Japanese national (Japanese) Letting people know I am from Brazil (Japanese) Oizumi-machi is my hometown (Japanese)

Transcripts available in the following languages:

(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.

Date: October 18, 2016
Location: Gunma, Japan
Interviewer: Shigeru Kojima
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Brazilians children of dekasegi discrimination language nikkei in japan