Ethnic migration and memory: disputes over the ethnic origins of Japanese Brazilians in Japan

Abstract

Research on Japanese Brazilian migration to Japan has followed most ethnic migration studies in assuming a conceptual opposition between an ‘official’ view held by the Japanese government's immigration policy, which conceives Japanese Brazilians as culturally close to the Japanese, and an ‘informal’ view held by Japanese Brazilians themselves, which maintains they are closer to Brazilian culture. I argue that, although the tension between the official and informal views is certainly important, it should not be reduced to a contrast between national cultures. This becomes clear when we examine the way Japanese Brazilians living in Japan organize commemorations related to the memory of their Japanese ancestors' past migration to Brazil. In this case, official and informal discourses do conflict, but this tension focuses not so much on the opposition between Japanese and Brazilian culture, but on how different representations of the past affect the current status of Japanese Brazilians in Japan.