Dekasegi Story
In 1988, I read a news article about dekasegi and had an idea: "This might be a good subject for a novel." But I never imagined that I would end up becoming the author of this novel...
In 1990, I finished my first novel, and in the final scene, the protagonist Kimiko goes to Japan to work as a dekasegi worker. 11 years later, when I was asked to write a short story, I again chose the theme of dekasegi. Then, in 2008, I had my own dekasegi experience, and it left me with a lot of questions. "What is dekasegi?" "Where do dekasegi workers belong?"
I realized that the world of dekasegi is very complicated.
Through this series, I hope to think about these questions together.
Stories from this series
Episode 31 Yuji is great!
June 10, 2019 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Yuji and I are childhood friends. We've been together since we were little, and our houses were close to each other. We used to wander around on the way home from school, and we would often get scolded when we got home. We went to the same elementary school, but when I got to junior high school, I started going to a private school. Thanks to the money my father sent home from Japan to work, our life became stable, …
Episode 30 (Part 2) Joanna's Great Adventure
May 22, 2019 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Read the first part >> Joana had never left the rural area where she was born and raised, but when she was 49, her daughter Luisa decided to attend nursing school in São Paulo and she went to live with her there until she had settled down. She rented a small house in the suburbs and commuted to work on a crowded bus. For her daughter, she tried many things she was not used to. City life, which was completely …
Episode 30 (Part 1) Joanna's Great Adventure
April 17, 2019 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Even as a child, Joana was a hard worker, going to the fields early in the morning with her parents and three older brothers, returning home at 11:30 and eating lunch with her two younger brothers before going to school with them. When Joana was just three months away from graduating from elementary school, her mother fell seriously ill. Joana had to take care of her mother and also work in the fields. She could no longer go to school, …
Episode 29: The Song of Dekasegi
Aug. 17, 2017 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Eric and Emily are twin siblings. When they were five years old, their parents divorced and their father took them in. Two years later, their father went to work in Japan, and their paternal grandparents took care of them in Brazil. Although their grandfather ran a Japanese grocery store and their grandmother ran a beauty salon, Eric and Emily were raised with a lot of love, despite being busy families. Their grandparents, who were second-generation Japanese Americans, were skilled in …
Episode 28 (Part 2) A Homecoming After 27 Years
April 24, 2017 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
Read the first part >> Masahiro Shibata, 46, has been living in Japan for 25 years, but this is his first time back in Presidente Prudente, where he was born and raised, in 27 years. The town hadn't changed as much as he had thought. Just as he thought, "There's probably no one left who remembers me," someone called out to him. "Do you remember me? I'm Kiyoshi's grandma." "Well, nothing has changed!" "Is 'Familia 1 ' included?" "Well, Prudente …
Episode 28 (Part 1) A Homecoming After 27 Years
Feb. 6, 2017 • Laura Honda-Hasegawa
"Massa is coming back!" "Eh?! Shibata's?" "That's right. My third son, Masahiro, is coming home!" "How many years has it been?" "Maybe 20 years or so?" Masahiro left Presidente Prudente, where he was born and raised, around May 1990 when he was 19 years old. When I was a child, I lived with my parents and two older brothers, and there were five of us in my family. After school, I would play ball with my friends in the field, …
