Didn't know that

Sort of following on from the post below: I knew that the Brazil football team were very popular in Japan, but I didn't realise that Brazil hosts the largest Japanese community outside Japan which numbers around 3 million, (compare to the Japanese-American population of 800,000 or so).

Comments

[Abiola]

I wouldn't have been aware of it either, had it not been for news of the plight of many of the now Japan-resident Brazilians repeatedly impinging on my consciousness.

Japan's a pretty funny place in this regard: these Brazilian immigrants are favored over others because of their Japanese ancestry, but now that the Japanese are discovering that having a Japanese-looking face doesn't mean you know anything about the culture, the result has been something of a discriminatory backlash. Foreigners who don't look Japanese are often given a "gaijin pass" on knowing the norms of the culture, and besides that they have a certain "exotic" appeal which procures favorable treatment, but to look Japanese and have a Japanese name while not actually *being* culturally Japanese is to have the worst of both worlds.

Anyway, don't mean to derail the post with my mini-dissertation on Brazilians in Japan, I just find the whole subject interesting.

[Frank McGahon]

Not at all, I find it very interesting myself...

[J.Cassian]

I kind of half-remembered that fact because of this old post by Brazilian poet Nelson Ascher at Europundits (you have to scroll down to September 14: "Silver Linings").

[J.Cassian]

September 4th, sorry.

[Chuckles]

http://www.brazzil.com/content/view/9718/78/

Hmm. It seems that in general, things arent looking too good for immigrants in Brazil.