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)

Hirano,Paulo Issamu

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

My daughter’s identity (Japanese)

(Japanese) I let my daughter decide it. I don’t tell her that she is Brazilian or Nikkei. I let her find it as her school environment changes.

Well, it’s because I believe that the place we live in now is a very good environment for my daughter, with a lot of foreigners around, and she can naturally interact with Japanese children who interact with many foreigners. I feel like such environment is the best for her now. And in the future, though, as she grows up and when she leaves Oizumi-machi, Ota city, people around her, they might say something that troubles her. But to prepare for when such thing happens, to make ourselves proud of this place where we have connections to Brazil and Japan, we just need to work hard.

Brazilians families Gunma Prefecture identity Japan Nikkei in Japan Oizumi

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)