Week 8_JoyceVea_ASA114

Source: Al Jazeera

In Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda’s When Minorities Migrate: The Racialization of Japanese Brazilians in Brazil and Japan he discusses how communities of color are racialized differently depending on the society in which they migrate to. In South America, people are racialized based on their “degree” of whiteness. In North America, people are racialized as Black with even one drop of African blood. In the context of the Asian diaspora, Tsuda examines the experiences of the Brazilian Japanese community or the Brazilian nikkeijin. Interestingly, both this diasporic community is racialized as Japanese in both Brazilian and Japanese societies, although in different ways. In Brazil, the community leverages their ethnic differentiation in order to capitalize on the association with Japan. On the other hand, Brazilian Japanese returnees are racialized as Japanese in order to maintain the homogenous status quo. Of course, this includes Japanese cultural proficiency as well, which leads to Brazilian Japanese being categorized as “ethnic anomalies”. In turn, this urges Brazilian Japanese to assert their Brazilian identity.
I thought this difference in racialization between the homeland and host country were extremely different, especially in vastly different regions like Brazil and Japan. In Brazil, it seems that their idea of race is one of a skin hierarchy, where the lighter you are, the better your status in their society. On the other hand, Japan is very assimilationist, where the nation is almost entirely comprised of ethnic Japanese. It must be interesting being Japanese, or even Asian, in Brazil, since they are kind of in their own category.

Question: For non-Japanese Asians, how is it like living in nations like Brazil? Are they all grouped into one category or are their distinctions that differentiate them from one another? How is the Japanese diaspora in Brazil politically organized? Do they have any representation in the Brazilian government?

References:
Tsuda, Takeyuki G. "When Minorities Migrate: The Racialization of Japanese Brazilians in Brazil and Japan.”." Ethnic Identity: Problems and Prospects for the Twenty-first Century (2006): 208-32.