Laura Honda-Hasegawa
@laurahhBorn in São Paulo, Brazil in 1947. Worked in the field of education until 2009. Since then, she has dedicated herself exclusively to literature, writing essays, short stories and novels, all from a Nikkei point of view.
She grew up listening to Japanese children's stories told by her mother. As a teenager, she read the monthly issue of Shojo Kurabu, a youth magazine for girls imported from Japan. She watched almost all of Ozu's films, developing a great admiration for Japanese culture all her life.
Updated May 2023
Stories from This Author
Episode 49 (Part III): New Life in Japan!
June 3, 2025 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Read Episode 49 (Part 2) A year and a half has passed since Kaori started living in Japan. She herself was very happy with her new life. Life was better than ever, she had more opportunities to learn new things, she was interacting with different people, and it felt like she was living a dream. My workplace was a room on the second floor of a restaurant, and my home was a small house in a quiet residential area about …
Episode 49 (Part II): New Life in Japan!
May 27, 2025 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Read Episode 49 (Part I) Emily May was six years old when she arrived in Japan, taken by her mother, who had recently separated from her husband. The girl was enrolled in a Brazilian school and her mother went to work in a food factory for convenience stores. But since Brazilian schools did not offer high school, after finishing the ninth grade, Emily returned to Brazil, since it would be very difficult to adapt to a Japanese school. She went …
Episode 49 (Part I): New Life in Japan!
May 20, 2025 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Kaori had three younger brothers and was the only girl. Since her mother was in poor health, she helped with household chores, took care of her siblings, and attended school from an early age. Her daily routine was quite busy, but she enjoyed helping and, above all, seeing her mother happy. But one day his mother fell ill, was hospitalized, did not survive heart surgery and died. It was then that Kaori saw that she had to be strong, because …
Japanese Style Christmas in Brazil
Dec. 24, 2024 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
As the year drew to a close, my mother always said, “We Nikkei are so lucky! We get to enjoy both Brazilian and Japanese traditional celebrations. At Christmas, we celebrate with Brazilian panettone, decorate the tree, and exchange gifts with loved ones. On New Year’s Day, we indulge in traditional Japanese delicacies like mochi, zoni, and enjoy watching the kohaku utagassen together as a family. We are truly fortunate!” I agreed with her. I’ve always thought Nikkei families in Brazil …
Episode 48 Mai-chan's Dream
Dec. 10, 2024 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Mai-chan is in the third grade of elementary school. Her father, Lucas, came to Japan from Brazil when he was nine years old with his father, Takeshi. Her mother, Ayumi, was born and raised in Japan, where her parents came to Japan from Brazil on dekasegi. Mai-chan was born in Japan, goes to a Japanese school, and all her friends are Japanese children. Also, many of her mother's relatives have lived in Japan for a long time, so they all …
Why I Don’t Have a Japanese Name
Oct. 30, 2024 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
My name is Laura Hasegawa. I’m 77. I think that Nikkei people in my generation usually have either Japanese names only or Brazilian names with Japanese names as their middle names. It seems that mother wanted to name me “Noêmia.” It’s a Brazilian name, but as it can be pronounced “Noemi” in Japanese, she probably thought it was a very convenient one. My father went to the civil registry office immediately after I was born. When he came back, he …
Episode 47 (Part 1) "I want to go home, but I can't"
April 18, 2024 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Eiji, the eldest son of two older sisters, was told by his parents to become a doctor in the future. His older sisters were made to do housework and help out at the supermarket run by his parents, but Eiji was always told to focus on his studies instead of helping out. When I was in my third year of high school, my daily routine was to go to a cram school immediately after school, study at home in the …
Episode 46: Who is Rihana in the painting?
Feb. 27, 2024 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
On her 27th birthday, Hana got married to her husband, Eiji, who was three years younger than her and was the younger brother of her classmate. Six months ago, that same classmate came to visit Hana. Her younger brother was going to Japan to work, but it was decided that if he was going to work, it would be better to get married first, so he was looking for a wife. The classmate immediately remembered Hana and came to see …
Episode 45: I'm glad Fujiko is Japanese!
Jan. 16, 2024 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
The Ozaki family was a large one. The eldest and second sons were married and lived together with their families and parents at the family home. Fujiko was born in that house. Her grandfather, who had three grandsons, was a big fan of the Japanese actress Fujiko Yamamoto, so he named his first granddaughter Fujiko. The family hoped that she would become as beautiful and popular as Fujiko Yamamoto. Fujiko grew up to be a cheerful girl. However, in her …
Episode 44 (Part 2) "I'm back home"
June 30, 2023 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Read the first part >> Returning to Brazil for the first time in three years, Paulo went alone to the church he had attended since childhood on Sunday. Paulo's family doesn't go to church, so he thought, "My mom and dad must have gone jogging at Ibirapuera Park and my sisters must still be asleep." It had been a long time since I'd seen a church with its arched doors and stained glass windows, and it brought back memories. I …
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