The Descendants of Japanese Immigrants in Brazil and “Eye Westernization Surgery

Résumé

Today, Brazil contains the largest ethnic Japanese community outside of Japan. Concentrated mostly in the states of São Paulo and Paraná, there are an estimated 1.5 million nikkei (immigrants of Japanese origin), slightly less than 5% of whom were born in Japan. The remaining 95% is made up of their descendants born in Brazil over the course of five generations. 2 Since the 1980s, Brazil has become a source of emigration and Japan has welcomed a quite unique type of immigration from Brazil, in that it is essentially composed of the descendants of immigrants – who are called dekasegi. This article aims to examine several contemporary forms through which Japanese-Brazilian identity is invented and constructed. This investigation was initially inspired by scarce and marginal references found in the literature dedicated to migratory displacements between Japan and Brazil. These references pointed to the centrality of the body – and the reading of it that is made by actors – in the perception and expression of Japanese-Brazilian identity. Three of these references that particularly drew my attention are transcribed below.