Beyond Boundaries Selected Papers on Refugees and Immigrants, Volume V

Edited by Diane Baxter and Ruth Krulfeld

In 1988, the Committee on Refugees (CORI) was established as a committeeof the General Anthropology Division, a Section of the American Anthropological Association. Its primary objective is to encourage, stimulate, and enhance the anthropological studyof refugee issues. CORI is committed to expanding knowledge about refugeesand refugee concerns by supporting scholarly activities that bridge theoreticaland applied research, by promoting research endeavors that span various disciplines without compromisingan anthropological perspective, and by advocating o n behalf o f refugees in diverse institu­ tional contexts. In 1996 the mandate of CORI expanded to include immigrantsand dis· placed peoples more generally. To become a member of CORI or the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Association. pleasecontact

American Anthropological Association 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640 Arlington, VA 22203-1620 703/528·1902 fax 703/528-3546 http://www.ameranthassn.org Cover Photos: Ruth Krulfeld ISBN 0-913167·85-1 Ii Recipient of the 1997 CORI Award

Return Migration of Japanese Brazilian Women: Household Strategies and Search for the "Homeland" TABLE OF CONTENTS

Keiko Yamanaka Acknowledgments This CORI award recognizes the outstanding paper on refugee, migrant, or immi­ Introduction Ruth Krulfeldand Diane Baxter grant issues submitted to Beyond Boundaries ( Selected Papers on Refugees and Volume V). The award celebrates excellence in anthropological Immigrants, _ . Winner of the CORI Annual Award for Best Paper research, broadly defined as embracing theory, methods,dat a, and appll�t1on. The __...Rdurn Migrationof JapaneseBrazilian Women: 1,.,/'" �o�sehold Strategies and Searchfor the "Homeland" winning paper is chosen through a vote of the volume's anonymous reviewers. Keiko Yamanaka

Ethnic Transnationalism andthe Channelingof Migrant Flows: The ReturnMigration of Japanese-Brazilians Takeyuki Tsuda The Role of Christian Missionariesin Forging a Transnational Identity AmongIu-Mien (Yao) Refugees JefferyMacDonald

Towards Nikkeiism: Japanese (Nikkei)-Peruvian Migrants as a New EthnicMinority Ayumi Takenaka

When the"Powerless" Take Control: Self-EmpowermentThrough Organization-BuildingAmong Lao Refugee Wome n Ruth M. Krulfeld

Young Girls Dressing: Experiences of Exile andMemories of Home Among Kosovo-AlbanianRefugees in Sweden KarinNorman

Idealizedand Devalued: Imagesof Identity Among PalestinianCamp Refugeesin the West Bank DianeBaxter

Copyright© 1997 by the American Anthropological Association Danglingon the Fringeof Nowhere: RepatriationAmbivalence Amo ng All rights reserved. �efugees From the FormerYugoslavia ISBN 0-913167-85-1 Eva V. Huseby-Darvas For additional copies of this volume, please contact Intergenerational Stress: Parentsand Adolescentsin Iranian ImmigrantFamilies American Anthropological Association PatriciaJ. Higgins 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640 Arlington, VA 22203-1620 703/528-1902 fax 703/528-3546 http://www.ameranthassn.org Yamanaka Household Strategies

RETURN MIGRATION OF JAPANESE BRAZILIAN WOMEN: Household Strategies And Search For The "Homeland"

Keiko Yamanaka

By tracing the immigrationhistory ofNikkeijin (Japanese descendants) in Brazil. this studyidentifies three categories ofJapanese Brazilian migrantwomen who have leftBrazi l since the late I 980s to work temporarily in Japan Thesew omen of contrasting generations, ethnicities and experience--categorized here as "Seniors, " "Juniors"and "Brazilian Wives" (ofNikkeijinmen)--constit ute more than40 percent ofthe 200,000 JapaneseBrazilian migrantpopulation in Japan An examination of data obtainedfro m interviewsin I 00 households in Japanand Brazil reveals distinctive ways in which women ofeach categoryapproach and maximizeeconomic opportunities encountered in Japan. Senior Nikkeijin, speakinggood Japanese, characteristically work in hospitals as caretakers ofelderly patients. whileJunior Nikkeijin and Brazilian Wives, with Ii/Ile linguistic and culturalfamiliarity, toil on manufacturing assembly lines. As a result of their experienceof social marginalityin Japan, the ethnic identityofNikkeijin women has been redefined, reflecting their historyin Brazil. Transnational migration has also entailed a reworking ofhousehold strategies for upward mobility in the context of continuing economic uncertaintyin Brazil. Return migration ofNikkeijinwomen to their ancestral countryhas thusope ned a new chapterin their individualbiographies and in their community'shistory in Brazil.

Since 1990, some 200,000 descendants(Nikkeijin, "Japanes e descendants")of Japanese emigrantsto Latin America, primarily Brazil,have returnedto theirancestral homelands as unskilled laborers in response to anincreased demand for labor in jobs shunnedby Japanese. Encouraged by the 1990 Japanese immigrationreform a l w which grantedsecond (Nisei) and third (Sansei)genera tion Nikkeijin a renewable stayofup to threeyears withunlimited access to labor markets, they looked forwardto finding well paying jobs as sojournersin Japan, and to being welcomed as compatriots. The enabling law was intended to attractNikkeij in as culturally familiar substitutes for what was perceived as an alarming influxof non-JapaneseAsian labor migrants. But theseexp ectations andintentions were ill-fated. The Nikkeijin foundthemselves to be regardedas aliens and treated as secondary citizensby the Japanese, while theJapanese found theNikkeijin to be disturbinglyforeign (Brazilian). From the beginning ofthis migration boom, theNikk.eijin population in Japanincluded a high proportionof women. In 1990, 39 percentof the total annual admissionsfrom Brazil were females, increasingto 43 percent in 1994. Similarly,the pr oportion of childrenwent up from5 percent in 1990 to 8 percent in 1991. These statisticsclearly indicate thatJapanese Brazilian migration is familyoriented, rather than dominatedby unaccompaniedmales. Despite the fact that family demography is crucial to understandingpatterns of migration,settlement and subsequent behavior in the adopted country, literatureon recent immigrantlabor in Japan pays

I I Yamanaka Household Strategies Yamanaka Household Strategies littleattention to this featureof what has become the country'sthird largest immigrant population, following 700,000 Koreans and220,000 Chinese. Basedon more than 100 household interviews and 50 surveyquestionnaires conducted in both Japan and Brazilin 1994 and 1995, this study will discuss Nikkeijinwomen's experiences asmig rantworkers in Japan, their resettlementprocess uponreturn ing to Brazilafter several years' sojourn and theim pact oflabormigration on theirse lf-perceptions. A close examination of the interview data reveals extraordinarycomple xity and diversity in the migration experiences

of Nikkefjin w omen by generation, languageand ethnicity,thus highl ighting theimportance of

[ [ C: C: incorporating in the analysis the historicaland cul turalcontexts of their return migration from ;· Brazil to Japan.

Japanese Women in Transnational Migration

"Birds of passageare also women ... " (Morokvasic 1984:886); this comment emphasizes the neglected attention paid to migrant women in theinternational migratio n literature. Migrant women makesignificant financialcontributions, as produc ers and earners,to their families and communities and therefore to the economy of the receivingcountry. By remitting a portionof their meager wages to thefamilies remaini ng in their home country,migrant women also contribute to the household and national economies there. As reproducers and nurturers, women play centralroles in uniting families,d eveloping social networks andth us solidifying ethnic communities and occupational niches. By raising and socializing children, they also transmit cultural traditions to succeeding generations, thus strengtheningemotional and social ties withthe host population (Morokvasic 1984; Gabaccia 1992). Japanese women, together with theirhusbands, were "birds of passage" fromthe earliest stages of emigration following theopening of thecountry in 1868 (see thefirst column of Chart I). In North America, between 1885 and1990, 20 to 25 percent of the89,000 Japanese immigrants to Hawaii were women (Nomura 1989). The 1907-08 Gentlemen's Agreement between the United Statesand Japan, while halting new immigration to the United States, permittedfamily members to enter the country as legal immigrants. Consequently, between 1910 and 1920, sizablenumbe rs (about 17,000) arrived, most of them as "picture brides" for immigrant Japanese men (lchioka, 1980). In South America, afterthe U.S. gate was closed in 1908, Japaneseemigran ts headed for Brazil.1 At this time, Brazilwas experiencing a laborshortage which had begunwith the abolition of slavery in 1888 and was exacerbated by the expanding demand forcoffee in Europe. Large coffee plantation owners (fazendeiros) first recruited farm handsas contract workers (colonos) from Italy, Portugaland Spain, and later fromGermany and Japan. Unlike those Japanese who firstemigrated to the United States, most of thosearriving in Brazilwere accompanied by their families. In aneffort to secure thestability of theirlabor force,em ployers' contracts required that a familyunit comprise 3 to 10 laborers, aged between12 and 45 (Suzuki 1992:141). Frequently unable to meet this familyrequir ement, theemigrants often create d "paper families" (kosei kazoku, "constituted families")of unrelatedpeople. Typically, a marriedco uple incorporatedrelatives, friends or neighbors into theirfamily unit andtraveled together. Upon their arrival,many paper families were dissolved whereupon members revertedto theiroriginal relationships (Maeyama 1996:43).

1 2 1 3 I lousdwld Strategics Yamanaka t louschold Strategic:-. Yamanaka

by purchasing, land in more remote and undeveloped areas. Cultivation of rice, coffee,cotton and Such practices resulted in a high degree ofparticipation of women in labor migration from the onset. In 1908, the first Japanese ship carryingimmigrants to Brazil, the Kasatomaru, arrived ?ther c�ops brought relative success and stability, but the immigrants' plans to returnhome were mdefimtelydelayed because of slow returnson agriculturalinvestment. A way fromcities and at the portof Santos with 797 Japanese, of whom 180 were women (CCEYH 1991 :86). As is shown in the thirdand fourth columns of Ta ble 1, there were 571 women (34 percent) amongthe "civilization," these immigrants lived in their own ethnic settlements (colonias Japonesas), where Japan se lan uage an communityethos were maintained. In 1925 the Japanese government total of 1,703 immigrants during thefirst three years. This figurer ose quickly to 10,421, 29,839 � � � and 34,414 during the decade of 1911-20, 1921-30 and 1931-42, respectively, accounting for made 1t a natmnal pohcy to promote emigration to Brazil, as a result of which the decade from nearly fortyand more percent of the total numbersof immigrantsduring each of these decades. 1925 to 1934 witnessed the peak of Japaneseimmigration to Brazilwith more tha n 120 000 immigrants,among whom women accounted for41 percent(see Table 1 ). This large influxof non-European immigrants, however, inevitably led to the anti-immigration policy of Brazil's nationalist government(Skidmore, I 990; Lesser, 1995). Passage of the 1934 Constitution FROM JAPAN TO BRAZIL, TABLE I. NUMBER OF JAPANESE EMIGRANTS drastically cut admission of Japanese immigrants, and Japan'ssubsequent participation in World 1908-1989, AND PROPORTIONOF WOMEN, 1908-1942 Women % Women War II completely halted emigration fromJapan to Brazil. _...... :.Y;::ear=--__T::..; o:..::tal::...... :(1 _... ) Total (2) 1908-1910 1,714 1,703 571 33.5 1911-1920 26,947 26,914 10,421 38.7 Period Ill, 1945 lo Present, "Permanent Settlers" 29,839 46.3 1921-1930 70,914 64,480 .. Japan'ssurrender in 1945 caused severe shock andmuch confusionamong Japanese 1931-1942 89,411 87,780 34,414 39.2 Braz1hans, most of whom had been convinced thatvictory for Japan was inevitable. As they 1945-1950 10 came to realize thatthe Japan to which they had hoped to returnno longer existed, most 1951-1960 44,655 �mmigr:mts made the decision to settlepermanently in Brazil. Afterthe war, declining agriculture 1961-1970 14,938 m Brazil pushed many immigrants to cities so that by the end of the 1950s almosthalf of all 1971-1980 8,333 Japanese immigrantslived in cities of SouthernBrazil, mostly in the StateofS�o Paulo. During 1981-1989 3 436 the same period, Japan reentered the internationalcommunity, giving rise in 1953 to a new flow Total 260358 Sources: Watanabe1 994; CCEYH 1991. of Japanese migrants to Brazil(see the third column of Chart I). Economic hardship fromthe Notes: Total (1) is derived fromemigration records (Watanabe 1994: 126), whereas devastationof war lingered with theresult that some Japanesechose to emigrateto Brazil Total (2) is derived fromimmigrant lists by immigrationcompanies permanently. Theeconomic prosperityof Japanin the 1960s quickly eliminated economic needs (CCEYH 1991: 86). Thestatistics on women arederived fromTotal (2). of emigration until, in 1973, the Japanesegovernm ent officially announceddiscontinuation of its emigrationprogram.' A totalof nearly60,000 Japanese hademig ratedto Brazilduring two Japanese Immigrants in Brazil, 1908-1973 decades (1953-73), of whichan estimated 30 to 40 percentwere women (see Table 1).4

Based on immigrants'plans, occupations and communityleadership, the nearly 90 years Social Differentiation and Labor Migration ofJap anese immigrationto Brazil may be divided into threeperiods-1908-1924, I 925-1941 and 1945 to present (see the second columnof Chart1). 2 Duringthe prosp erous l 960s-the "economic miracleof Brazil"--theNikkeijin population underwent rapid internalchanges. Based on a census of JapaneseBrazili ans in 1958, Maeyama (1990:213) reports that a sampleof some 66,000 non-agriculturalpeople 10 years of Period L 1908-1924, "Short-TermMigrant Workers" an age andover (extractedfro m a total population of 430,000) revealed the formationof three social During the firstperiod, 1908-1924, a total ofabout 35,000 Jap ese entered Brazil(see classes: "old middle class,""ne w middle class," and "workingclass." The old middle class, Table 1). The immigrantsworked on contractas farmhands in large coffeeplantations (fazendas) comprising primarilythe self-employed engaged in familybusiness, accounted for63 percentof scattered in SouthernBrazil, primarily in the state of Sao Paulo. These immigrants, farmersand the sample. Thesewere mostly Issei (firstgeneration ) andolder (second their families mostly from southwestern Japan, intended to labor fora few years and returnhome Nisei generation) who lacked formalBrazilian education. As latecomersto urbancommercial occupat ions, their withs ubstantialsavings. However, employer-employee relations on the fazendasreflected the entrepreneurship survivedby relying heavily on unpaidlabor provided by wivesand chil dren. facttha t slaveryhad been abolished only two decades before. Working conditions were brutal, lass, comprising primarilythe children of membersof the old middle class, and wages extremely low andemployers autocratic. Theimmigrants resisted, oftenrefusing to work, Thenew middle� m to which many employers responded with threats, and sometimes acts, of violence. As a result, ade up of salanedemployees in occupationsrequiring professional and technical skills, accountedfor 20 percent of the sample. Japaneseparents, while perseveringin family immigrants' dreamsof getting rich quickly and returninghome were shattered. businesses, sought a brighter futurefor their sons by sendingthem to universities forprofessional training. As a result of traditional gender roles, daughtersreceived less education,most remaining Period IL 1925-1941, "Long-TermMigrant Workers" During the second period, 1925-1941, most immigrantsleft the plantationsupon the at home to assisttheir parents untilthey married. Thus,members of the new middle class an comprisedyounger Brazilian-born,Portuguese speaking and ns (third generation)men completion of their contracts and becameindependent farmers(situ tes), firstby leasing, then Nisei Sa ei

I 4 I 5 Household Strategies Yamanaka Household Strategics Yamanaka

co position (see Table 2). In 1988, males 15-44 years of age comprised two thirds of all male and their families. The working class, made up of wage laborers(including students holding such 1:1 arr1vals and utn mbered female arrivalsby 23 percent. This patternch anged as the sojourning jobs), constituted the remaining seventeen percent of the sample.5 _ ? � �01? rntens1 ed m 1990. Male arrivals increased in nearly all age categories, resulting in a sharp The economic crises that hit Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s caused serious financial trouble for � nse m sex ratio (from 134 to 159) accompanied by an equally sharpdrop in the average age (from most Brazilians; hyperinflation and unemployment threatened the urban employed class most. 3 to 32). By 1994 females increased in allbut two age categories,lowering the sexratio to 132. By the mid-1980s, many Brazilianscame to view emigration as a route to economic survival ? F mally, the proportion of children of less than 14 years among the migrants increasedfrom 4 .5 to (Goza1994; Margolis 1994). A small but unknown number of Japanese Brazilians joined the 6.8 percent between 1988 and 1994 (Yamanaka 1996a, b ). exodus from Brazil in the mid-l 980s. Typically, these were men and women of middle age and older-Nisei and post-war lssei-who engaged in traditional small business, but spoke fluent Research Methods and Data Japanese an d, more importantly, retained Japanese citizenship. As Brazil's economic crisis continued to worsen into the late 1980s, stable middle class Nisei and Sansei-mostly men-who The research forth e following findingsw as conducted in both Japan and Brazilb etween held professionalan d managerial positions began to migrate to Japan. A legal barrier, however, 1994 and 1995. In March and November 1994, I conducted personal interviews with members of confronted those-a majority-who lacked Japanese citizenship. Japan follows the principle of 63 Nikkeiji hou eholds in Hamamatsu (Shizuoka Prefecture) and Toyohashi(Aichi Prefecture) jus sanguinis (law of blood) in determining Japanese citizenship and had required that a child's � � of the Tokai Reg10n, Central Japan. In July 1995, I carried out a similar study with members of birth be registered with Japanese authorities within fourteen days after its birth in order for the 33 households of Nikkeijinwho had returned fromJap an to three major cities in Southern child to be granted citizenship.6 For immigrant parents living in remote areas in Brazil, this Brazil-Sao Paulo, Londrina and Porto Alegre. These interviews were conducted in either registration was a hardship, as a result of which many second generation Japanese children (Nisei) Portug ese or Jap ese an d questions were answered in an open conversational style. Altogether were not registered as Japanese citizens, with the result that under the Japanese Nationality Law ;1 _ � these field studies yielded data (referred to as NikkeijinData below) containing informationon a they were defined as foreigners despite their Japanese ancestry. total of 171 in ividuals 15 years of age and over-81 women and 90 men (Yamanaka and Koga � . _ 1996). In add1t1on, a wntten surve e e as ered in Portuguese, of which 53 _ y qu stionnair w administ e e e e e e e Japan's New Immigration Policy and the Nikkeijin Influx (out ot I 00) were return d. Finally, a total of about 50 short r, suppl m ntary intervi ws w r conducted in Japan and Brazil. The rising tide of arrivals in Japan of Nisei and Sansei of Brazilian citizenship in the late 1980s Three Categories of Women Migrants brought to the surface a number of inconsistencies and inadequacies in Japanese immigration laws Nikkeijin and policies (Yamanaka 1996a). Prior to their arrival, illegal employment of Asians in unskilled Preliminary analysis (Yamanaka 1996b) of these interviews and surveys led me to group sectors had attracted national attention (Morita and Sassen 1994). Facing an increasing number these 81 Nikkeijin migrant women into three distinct categories mentioned above:(1) "Senior of illegal workers in 1989, the Japanese government revised its 1951 Immigration Control and Nikkeijin Women," (2) "Junior NikkeijinWom en" and (3) "Brazilian Wives." Five criteria are Refugee Recognition Law. The new Jaw, which took effect in June 1, 1990, maintained the old used for classifying the sample: (1) informant's historical position representedby her generation principle of limiting imported labor to skilled occupations, but implemented two important new and age; (2) her cultural affiliationwith the ancestral homeland measured by her fluency in measures. First, in order to eliminate illegal labor, it instituted criminal penalties for the Japanese;( ) her soci economic po ition in Brazil as indicated by education and occupation; (4) recruitment and hiring of unskilled foreignwork ers. 7 Second, the Jaw created a new "long-term" � ? � her ccupatlon as a migrant worker m Japan; and (5) her ethnic origin, identifyingher as a person visa exclusively for descendants (up to the third generation) of Japanese emigrants. This visa, ? of either Nikkeijin or non-Nikkeijind escent. Table 3 illustrates this cl assification scheme. designed to attract cheap "Japanese" labor, granted up to three years' residence without restriction on socioe e 8 cnomic activities (Yamanaka 1993, 1996a; Corn lius 1994). Senior Nikkeijin Women An influxof Nikkeijin followed immediately upon implementation of the Revised Immigration Among the 81 women in the Nikkeijindata, eight belong to the first group, designated Law on June I, 1990. Legitimized as residents and workers by the new policy, young Nisei and . "Sen or Nikkeijin Women," consisting of two sub-groups representing the two migrantstreams to Sansei men and women and their families constituted theov erwhelming majority of Nikkeijin � Brazil,on e before, and the other after, World War II. The first sub-groupconsists of five immigrants. In 1991 the annual influx of Brazilianand Peruvian nationals of Japanese ancestry daughters (Nisei) of pre-World War II immigrantswho grew up in colonias Japonesasas reached a peak of 120,000 (96,000 and 24,000, respectively). The following year the Japanese Japanese.9 The second sub-group comprises three post-war immigrant(lssei) women who were economy plunged into a serious recession whereupon the number of annual arrivals dropped by ?om in apan during or i ediately after the war. Becauseof theirhaving grown up as Japanese approximately 15 percent in 1992 and 1993. Nevertheless, by 1994 more than 200,000 Nikkeijin � � m co)oruas Japon sasor m Japan, all eight of these Senior Nikkeijin Women (average age 56.5 (160,000 Brazilians,35,000 Peruvians and 6,800 other South American nationalities)r emained as � years) are fluent m Japanese and are familiar with Japanese values and customs. Prior to their alien residents in the major Japanese manufacturing towns (Yamanaka and Koga 1996). arrival in Japan all but two, both widows, were married. All but one, an elementarysch ool According to admission statistics provided by the Japanese Ministry of Justice, the age structure teacher, had been self-employed in agricultureor small business. With few skills at their age, and sex ratio of the Japanese Brazilian population in Japan changed significantlybetween 1988 most of these Senior Women took jobs in which their fluency in Japanese-theironly marketable and 1994, from a patternof working ag e male predominance to one of a more balanced age and sex

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0� ·�:i: \': T ABLE 3. THREECATEGORIES OF JA en PANESE BRAZILIAN MIGRANTWOMEN INJAPAN AND THEIR CULTURAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERIS" 0 w��rue�Q[ies HistoricalPosition !:l!lt11rnlAffili�tiQD 'iii. Ii!llill! �nr;=cnn--"' B ;n R,.,; ill !i!lli\11 ii Q!;�Yllll!iQD !:I I. Generation I. Japanese language l. Education 0 2. Age :i: 2. Japaneseculture 2. Occupation

I. Daughters(liJHi) of Pre-W.W.IIimmigrants (hm ), I. Fluent. I. Little fonnal Brazilianeducation . Service: primarily bornand socializedin Brazil asJapanese in the pre- 2. Little first hand experience, 2. Small-scale agricultweor small convalescent attendants. W.W.II periodand l,ui women who immigrated lo but knowledgeable. familybusiness. Brazilas youngchildren beforeWWJJ. Senior Nik.keijin 2. 45 yearsand over.

I. Posl-W.W.11Japanese immigrants(1uri ), bornand I. Native speaker. I. Mostly Japanesee ducation Service:primarily socializedin Japanas Japanese in the post-W.W.11 2. First hand experience. received in Japan. convalescent attendants. period. 2. Small-scale agricultureor small 2. 45 years andover. family business.

I. Granddaughters �i ) and daughters (ljjm )of I. Little exposure. I. Brazilianhigh school education Mostly factoryworlcers. pre-W.W.11immigrants, born a nd socializedas 2. Little knowledge. and higher. O'I Brazilianin the post-W.W.11period. 2. Student, white collaror JuniorNik.keijin 2. 16 to 44years. professional.

I. Daughters(/:i.im )of post-W.W.11 Immigrants, I. Considerableexpos ure. I. Brazilianhigh schooleducation Mostly factoryworlcers . bornand socialized in Brazilas Brazilian in the post- 2. Little knowledge. andhigher. W.W.11period. 2. Student, white collaror 2. 16 to 44 years. professional.

I. Brazilianv wi es of Nikkeijin men, born and socialized I. Little exposure. I. Brazilian high schooleducation. Mostly factory worlcers. Brazilian Wives in Brazilas Brazilian in the post-WW.IIperiod. 2. Little knowledge. 2. White collar. 2. 16 to 44years. :a � Yamanaka Household Strategies Yamanaka Household Strategies

ofinvestment, is already financially secure including their own house or apartment in Brazil. skill-would maximize their wages, Le., convalescent attendants (tsukisoifu) in hospitals taking Asked about their primary motives for migration to Japan, these women emphasized personal care around the clock oftenninally ill and bed-ridden elderly patients. curiosity and a chance to travel to Japan rather than monetary goals. Historical ties to Japan come to the fore when they speak oftheir motives for the journey. The following description by Junior Nikkeijin Women Yoko Ikeda (62) illustrates her long cherished dream ofgoing to Japan: 13 The second group, designated "Junior Nikkeijin Women," comprises fifty-seven younger women (average age 28.5 years). Like the Senior group, the Juniors consist of two generational I wanted to go to Japan all my life. It was the homeland where my parents were born and groups: 29 Sansei-granddaughters ofpre-World War II Issei immigrants-and 28 Nisei- my relatives still live. In Brazil, before the war when the government prohibited teaching daughters ofeither pre- or post-World War II Issei immigrants. Both generations grew up in foreign languages, we learned to speak Japanese underground. More recently, my eldest post-war Brazil, speaking Portuguese and absorbing Brazilian cultural values. 10 Forty-two of the daughter received a fellowship to study Japanese in Japan and went there as a student. I 57 women are married, while II are single and 4 are divorced. These Junior Nikkeijin Women are myselfwished to go...it was a dream. But finally, when I decided to work in Japan, my well educated with 80 percent ofthem having completed senior high school or beyond. second daughter did not like the idea. She must have felt embarrassed. I was Correspondingly, prior to their migration, three quarters ofthem were professionals, university disheartened. If I had given up my dream then, I would not have been able to do what I students or white collar workers. In Japan, almost all ofthem work as assemblers in factories wanted to do. One should be given an opportunity to realize one's wish. Telling me not manufacturing automobile or electrical appliance parts. Migration thus resulted in downward to go did not deter me when I wanted to go at any cost. occupational mobility, but as will be discussed below, few could resist it because oftheir expectation oflarge savings in a short period oftime. The cultural factor motivating this woman poses a sharp contrast with the economic motivations ofthe three post-war immigrant Issei women. Unlike their Brazilian-born Nisei Brazilian Wives contemporaries, the Issei women who immigrated to Brazil in the 1950s and I960s had been, as a The third group ofNikkeijin women consists of sixteen Brazilian women of European result ofthe constantly changing agricultural policies ofthe Brazilian government, unable to origin (average age 30.3 years), who are married to Nisei and Sansei men. These women migrated establish themselves economically. For these Japan-born women, returning to the home country with their husbands as family members and, together with their male counterparts (Brazilian for labor migration aroused mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was their only opportunity to husbands ofNikkeijin women), constituted a non-Nikkeijin segment ofthe Brazilian Nikkeijin reconstruct their household economies that had been undennined by Brazil's hyperinflation. On population in Japan. Interracial marriage between Nikkey·in and non-NikkeY·in in Brazil accounted the other hand, it was a humiliating experience for them as Japanese emigrants, to return to work for 45.9 percent ofthe total marriages among the Nikkey·in population according to the Nikkeijin in their home country in jobs that no one else would be willing to take. In a time ofeconomic census of 1988 (Sao Paulo Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyujo 1988: I04).11 This relatively high rate of crisis, economic needs clearly overcame personal hesitation. Thus they, with their husbands, interracial marriage has resulted in the substantial number ofnon-Nikkeijin Brazilian women and were among the large wave offoreign workers who arrived in Japan in 1988-1989. men in the recent migration to Japan. 12 My analysis ofthe Nikkeijin data reveals that compared Soon thereafter, with the passage ofthe new immigration law in 1990, daughters ofthese to their Nikkeijin sisters-in-law, their educational achievement is lower. Only one has a college Senior Nikkeijin Women followed in their mothers' footsteps. By that time extensive networks degree. As this suggests, the Brazilian wives ofNikkey·in men are less aggressive than their ofrecruiters in Brazil enabled job applicants to arrange employment prior to departure. When Nikkeijin counterparts in pursuing economic mobility. Secretarial and sales jobs were the most confronted by the option ofmigration, most of these Junior Nikkeijin Women showed little common occupations among them before they departed for Japan. Their personal histories of hesitation in choosing it. Unmarried women accompanied their families or joined family members relatively low aspiration for economic mobility appears to be associated with the fact that, upon who had already settled in Japan. Some, however, migrated on their own, frequently as members their arrival in Japan, they display little interest in adjusting to Japanese culture and language. ofa group organized by recruiters. Married women typically joined their husbands in Japan a few months to a year after the husbands had established themselves with jobs and housing. Findings The methods and timing oftheir migration varied depending on personal circumstances. The motives for migration ofall Junior Nikkeijin respondents I interviewed, however, were The three categories ofNikkey·in migrant women I have designated show considerable primarily economic. With three quarters ofthem married, the majority with children ofschool differences in (I) their motivation to go to Japan, (2) their work experience and social adjustment age, they, their husbands and children went to Japan hoping to get rich quickly and return to in Japan and (3) changes in their self-perceptions and ethnic identities after migration. .Brazil to reestablish themselves there-to buy a house, apartment or land and start a family business with their savings from Japan. As previously discussed, the immigrants' desire to be Motivation for Migration their "own boss" is deeply rooted in Japanese Brazilian immigration history and must be Labor migrants are generally thought to emigrate in search ofbetter economic understood as a manifestation ofhousehold strategies employed to climb the socioeconomic opportunities than those available to them in their home country. But in the case ofwomen ladder ofBrazilian society. Faced with economic chaos, young Nikkeijin sought a solution by familial responsibilities often intrude to overcome economic motives for migration. This is returning to the strategy ofestablishing a family business, rather than preparing for salaried particularly true ofthe five Senior Nisei Women each ofwhom, benefiting from two generations employment through higher education.

20 2I '/! Household Strategies Yamanaka Household Strategies Yamanaka

Indeed, in my Nikkeijin data, ten Junior Women interrupted their college educations to automobile assemblers such as Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, Toyota and Nissan (Hamarnatsu-shi join the migration stream. Most of these "drop outs" were unmarried and wanted to participate Municipal Office 1992). According to Castles (1984:2), the migrant or guest worker system in their families' businesses. For example, two Sansei women, Marisa Saito (21, single) and Edna embodies "institutional discrimination" which is "designed to recruit and control temporary Kikuchi (46, divorced), were each willing to pool their savings with their family members to set migrant workers" offoreign origin. In Nikkeijin's employment, this institutional discrimination is up a new business because "we do everything together in family." This emphasis on family manifest in the hiring system by which they are employed on short-term contracts by job unity was even more striking in the case ofprofessional women who had secure, high paying jobs brokers or job dispatchers (assen or haken gyosha), who in turn send them to their actual before migration. Marlene Tanaka (29, Sansei) was a university educated registered nurse in a workplaces in subcontractors' factories. Their work requires physical strength and on-the-job state-run hospital in Sao Paulo and was about to be promoted to become a head nurse in her experience, but no complex technical or communication skills. The Nikkeijin guest worker clinic. In 1991 her husband went to Japan, planning to establish a retail shop chain. Three system is designed, therefore, to function as a shock absorber (or "adjustment valve" in the months later Marlene resigned from her position and, together with their young son and her Japanese phrase) between peak and slack periods ofthe economy, in order that Japanese mother-in-law, left to join him in Japan. There she worked in a factory for three years, while her workers' jobs and their wages may remain secure during recessions. In addition to this mother-in-law took care oftheir son during the day. dispatching service, most Nikkeijin rely heavily on job brokers for every aspect oftheir lives in The motivations for migration among the sixteen Brazilian Wives differed profoundly Japan, including securing housing, furniture, documentation and children's education. Job brokers from those ofeither the Senior or Junior Nikkeijin Women. The Brazilians were in a unique legal charge substantial fees for many ofthese services with the result that Nikkeijin are unable to save and social position as non-Nikkeijin wives ofNikkeijin men from whom they did not want to be as much money they had originally hoped. separated. Prior to departure from Brazil few of these wives were personally interested in In the Hamamatsu and Toyohashi area, wages ofNikkeijin workers decreased by some 20 Japanese culture or spoke Japanese. When the migration boom hit their households, it was in all percent in 1992 when the Japanese economy fell into a deep recession. Likewise, hours of cases Nikkeijin husbands who decided to go to Japan and their wives acceded to their husbands' overtime work substantially decreased. At the depth ofthe recession, hundreds ofNikkeijin were decision. Similarly, some unmarried couples married immediately before migration in order to discharged and then returned home. Nonetheless, the average monthly earnings offull time Junior legalize their relationship and thus be permitted to migrate together. Asked why they went to Nikkeijin and Brazilian Wives. which ranged from less than $1,900 to 2.100 ($9 to $10 per hour) Japan, Brazilian Wives did not reter to economic or cultural motives, but only to thcir husbands' beforc tax, rent and other tees, far exceeded those they brought home in Brazil while working as interest in migrating and to their own determination to accompany them to keep the family professionals, secretaries, sales clerks and self-employed prior to migration. The Brazilian together. This passivity ofBrazilian Wives was in sharp contrast to the situation wherein Institute ofGeography and Statistics calculates Brazilian wage standards by minimum monthly ethnicity and gender were reversed. That is, a non-Nikkeijin husband ofa Nikkeijin wife would living wages. In April 1990 it was set at the equivalent of$70 (JETRO Sao Paulo Center 1992). not only migrate with his wife, but would willingly work as many hours possible in Japan, and in Results from my written survey conducted in Brazil in July 1995 suggest that Nikkeijin migrants some cases actively try to absorb Japanese language and culture. This interaction between gender had earned on the average three to five times this minimum wage in Brazil prior to their departure and ethnicity suggests the importance ofunderstanding division oflabor by gender in the for Japan. In Japan at the height ofthe economic growth between 1988 and 1991, an unskilled household economy in Brazil. male factory worker earned more than $100 per day including a few hours ofovertime. Women, because ofgender inequality, usually earned 20 percent less than men for comparable jobs (e.g., Work Experience andSocial Adjustment in Japan Brinton 1993). These daily wages were equivalent to what he or she might earn in one month in The three categories ofNikkeijin women arrived in Japan at different times and stayed for Brazil. different periods. Seven ofthe eight Senior Nikkeijin Women arrived between 1989 and 1992 and Job brokers also played a significant role in employment ofSenior Nikkeijin Women as stayed in Japan for less than two years. Some ofthem did so because ofthe difficulty of convalescent attendants. According to Shinozuka (1991), at the request ofthe central maintaining their permanent resident status in Brazil ifthey were to remain absent for more than organization of this industry, the Japanese Ministry of Labor issued administrative directives two years. Their briefstay is also explained by their advanced age and by non-monetary specifYing work conditions and duties for female Nikkeijin attendants who would otherwise have motives, such as family and cultural ties in Brazil. The majority ofJunior Nikkeijin and Brazilian been vulnerable to job exploitation. Among these measures were equal wages for Japanese and Wives, on the other hand, came to Japan between 1990 and 1992, after the new immigration law Nikkeijin and the requirement that Nikkeijin workers speak fluent Japanese. Japan is a rapidly legalized their entry but before the economic recession had seriously affected their employment aging society (Martin 1989). Japanese women's total fertility rate dropped by 28 percent opportunities. Firmly committed to their economic goals, these young Nikkeijin women and their between 1965 and I990--from 2.14 to 1.54 (Asahi Shimbun 1994:53). By 2025 it is estimated families had stayed in Japan for three years on an average at the time ofinterview. that 27.3 percent ofthe total Japanese population will be 65 years and older (Cornelius 1994). Once in Japan, however, all women, regardless oftheir backgrounds, worked as Because ofthis rapid expansion in the elderly population, a demand for convalescent attendant temporary contract laborers, filling gaps in the labor supply created by variations in labor services has risen, sharply pushing up the service fee. In 1990, the job ofconvalescent attendant demand, which fluctuates with the business cycle and demographic change. In the cities of paid an average of$1 03 per 24 hour work day (Shinozuka 1991). By 1992, the wages had risen Hamamatsu and Toyohashi manufacturing, particularly ofautomobile parts, is a major industry. to $140 per day, allowing the attendant to earn more than $3,500 per month with four days off. In Hamamatsu alone over 6,000 small subcontractors-fifty percent ofwhich have less than five It is no surprise, then, to find Senior Nikkeijin Women working with few complaints at this employees, and over ninety percent ofwhich have less than 3O-supply parts to large

22 23 Yamanaka Household Strategies Yamanaka Household Strategies extremely arduous job. They, or even their husbands, had never earned such large sums in their 1994). Individual reactions ofNikkeijin women to such demeaning experiences reflected their lives. varying cultural resources and social structural situations. Speaking fluent Japanese and working The monetary rewards ofmigration, however, scarcely matched the psychological pain individually, Senior Nikkeijin Women readily recognized indications ofdiscrimination and and social isolation Nikkeijin women and men endured in Japan. In addition to their vulnerability therefore experienced Japanese discriminatory practices as personal affronts and persecution. In to systematic exploitation by job brokers, Nikkeijin factory workers all experienced blatant contrast, Junior Nikkeijin Women, not speaking functional Japanese and working in teams on prejudice and discrimination in the workplace. Because ofNikkeijin's ancestry and appearance, assembly lines, experienced cultural clashes with Japanese, not as individual problems, but as Japanese managers and co-workers tended to expect them to behave and speak like Japanese. It shared conditions ofNikkeijin factory employment. Consequently they managed to largely did not take the Japanese long to realize that most Nikkeijin are not the Japanese they had escape feelings ofpersonal persecution based on their "foreign-ness." Brazilian Wives remained expected but "foreigners" who neither speak Japanese nor conform to Japanese practices and relatively untouched by such discrimination because, in addition to their European appearance, customs. When expectations oftheir "Japanese-ness" were overtly contradicted, the Japanese their linguistic isolation. cultural distance and social dependency on their Nikkeijin husbands, often verbally abused them calling them "stupid," "secondary Japanese" and "uncivilized people prevented them from developing significant relationships with Japanese, thus remaining less from a backward country." They were regarded as slow and lazy in their work, impolite and rude subject to the experience ofdisparagement and overt social exclusion than their Nikkeijin sisters- in personal interactions. In response to such insulting treatment by people they thought ofas in-law. fellow Japanese, Nikkeijin were confused and deeply hurt. Having grown up as "Japones" in Brazil, the unexpectedly chilly welcome in their ancestral homeland seriously challenged their Changes in Identities self-perceived ethnic identity. The only respondents who expressed no form of identity crisis How, then, are these three categories ofNikkeijin women and their families faring as they were the sixteen European Brazilian Wives, whose obvious non-Japanese or "otherly" resettle in Brazil after having returned from their sojoum in Japan? Have they undergone appearance exempted them from the expectations visited upon the Nikkeijin, thus enabling them significant changes in their identification as Nikkeijin and as women as a result ofmigration? In to escape the ethnic clash between Japanese and Nikkeijin. this final section ofanalysis, I limit my discussion to interviews with 27 women-seven Seniors, Discriminatory practices which isolated Junior Nikkeijin Women, also touched even eighteen Juniors and two Brazilian Wives-who returned from Japan and resettled in their home Senior Nikkeijin Women who spoke perfect Japanese. A source ofthe cultural incongruity they environments in Sao Paulo, Londrina and Porto Alegre. In this resettlement process, I have again experienced, however, resulted from employers' expectation that domestic care providers be found profound differential experiences and responses according to age, generation, social class, "soft, gentle and polite" in serving their clients. The Japanese human service industry abides by ethnicity and timing of return. These women's evaluation oftheir migration experience is, highly codified rules and customs regarding female employees'- however, invariably positive despite their experience offrequent incidents ofdiscriminatory manners and speech, conforming to accepted but often subtle cultural standards. 14 It was their treatment in Japan. Their financial satisfaction largely accounts for this positive view, but non- unfamiliarity with these culturally ingrained and refined feminine manners and artful choice of material personal gains playa significant role as well. These range from increased self-confidence honorific words, that confused, discouraged and sometimes tormented these foreign born women as women, to renewed and reinforced ethnic identity as Nikkeijin Brazilian. These responses who had not experienced such socialization in Brazil. To their Japanese employers and clients, demonstrate the multiplicity ofsubjective meanings attached to their transnational experience. the Nikkeijin women appeared unsophisticated in personal appearance, crude in speech and often Among the seven Senior Women, four are Brazilian-born Nisei and three are Japan-born impolite in manners. An extreme example was that ofYukiko Yamamoto, (Nisei, 68), who post-war Issei. Both groups went to Japan between 1989 and 1992 and returned to Brazil recalled the shock she experienced when she and four other Nikkeijin women were summoned to between 1991 and 1994, therefore allowing one to four years back in Brazil by the time ofthe work shortly after their arrival in Japan: interviews. Free from work and family responsibility, the four Nisei women appear to have readjusted fully to Brazilian society, devoting much oftheir energy to taking care offamily affairs The company president looked us over as he entered the meeting room where all ofus and socializing with friends. Asked what concerned them upon arrival in Brazil, the four Nisei were sitting and waiting. I couldn't believe what he said to his subordinate even before he women all indicated their strong attachment to their home country. Toyoko Hayashi (Nisei, 60), said anything to us. He said, "What! They all look like aboriginals (dojin). They are so for example, repeated the word, "relieved" (suutto-shita) in describing her return home, because dark. Why did you bring them? You must make sure next time to bring whiter ones." "I am a caboclo (literally, person of white and Indian ancestry; here figuratively, "country This was a shock to me. Later I came to expect behavior like that from job brokers bumpkin") ofBrazil, and this is my sweet home where I was born." In contrast, the three post- (shusenya). But I could scarcely believe it coming from the president. war Issei women occupy themselves with family businesses in which they have invested their savings from their Japanese employment. Their concerns centered on their economic future in Individual experiences ofdiscrimination based on ethnicity varied according to women's Brazil, their adopted country. instead of their emotional ties with it. Yoshiko Akiyama (57). language ability, cultural understanding and work environment. Nonetheless, the ubiquity of who opened a flower shop but whose excitement quickly evaporated because ofrising inflation, discriminatory practice by Japanese against Nikkeijin suggests that Japanese definitions of raised questions about Brazilian political institutions and pondered the wisdom ofhaving cultural righteousness and their notions ofethnic hierarchy deserve close examination in future returned from Japan to Brazil. studies. In addition to ethnic discrimination, the well-established wage discrimination against women in Japan further relegated these immigrants to the status ofmarginal workers (Yamanaka

24 25

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example, I don't know what to thinkabo ut this country. In Brazil no one can foresee what will Yoko Ikeda, SeniorNikkeij in, referredto her new assertiveness in relationships with her h band happen next. Why don't people revolt? My shop may not last too long beca�e the rent � who had remained in Brazil. Uponher return, with increased financial power together with hasbecome too steep. I have Jived in this coWltry since 1964, but the longer I hve the a strengthened sense of autonomy, she forthrightly tells her husbandto drive her to a bus stop more I'm lost. Whydid I returnhere? Maybe, my family. Maybe there is something in thecar, an act that,out of deferenceto him, she wouldnever have daredto do before else I have not yet figured out what it is in Brazilthat keeps me coming back. migration. Many returnees cited their increasedpati ence andsy mpathy forothers as the p rimary personal gain they receivedfrom working in strictlydi sciplined Japanese work organizations. The eighteen JW1iorNikkeijin and two Brazilian Wives had returnedto Brazilless than Transnationalmigration has also redefined the ethnic andnational consciousness of these grant' Nikkeijin one year previous to theirinterviews, andwere still in the midst of transitionfrom the m! _s returnees. In Brazil, racialdynami cs have historicallyrevolv ed aroundthe ax is of "whi lifein Japan to thereside nt's lifein Brazil. Many of the marriedwomen amongthem, w1� their te andblad e/native" relations. As a smallethnic minority, Japones,are regarded by the general husbands, have already bought new houses or apartmentswith their savings. Their mat�nal population asconstituting a socialca tegoryrac iallyand culturall y distinct frome ither of i 4:4 .16 satisfaction is indicated by their stylishly furnishedmodem homes and new cars. Desp te theu these (Maeyama 198 55) The rapid upwardec onomic mobility of Japanesealso satisfactionupon having returned and fullyresettled at home, they are seriously concernedabout distinguished the group fromother racial and ethnicmi norities. As a result of bothof these thera pid ly deteriorating Brazilian economy. In January 1995, newly elected President Fernando factors,the Japane se cameto definethemselves as "Japones"rather than B" rasileiro," thus Henrique Cardoso and his governmentlaW1ched a new e ono ic plan to contr l � � _ . � (nfl�tion. By exhibiting theirown ethnic pride. Uponmi gration to Japan,however, theirethnic pride ustere policy had brought about a staggenng nse m pnces and m mc1dence of July 1995 thisa plummetedas theyfound the mselves regarded andtrea ted asinferior to "true" Japanese. To bankruptcy (Veja 1995). Although anxious to startnew businesses, many Nikke in returnees e escape � � this stigmatized image, themigrants came to definethemselv es asforei gn-as "Brazilians" discouraged frominvest ing their hard-won savings acquired in Jap�, andchoo �e mste�d t� wait rather than "Nikkeijin." By intentionally shiftingtheir collective identity fromethnicit y to in the hope that theeconomy will improve. This slow and uncertam process ot rcsettl g 1 nationality _ rn _ � in accord with their emerging minority position, Nikkeijini mmigrants found manifestin the distribution of the principal activities of the twenty JW11orand Non-N1kke1;m psychological support for their long-term staysas "foreigners" in thehost community: women since their return: nineare primarilyhousewives, raising childrenand participatingin "outs iders" in their ancestral homeland. Thissense of cultural alienation in Japan culminated in family affairs; fourare operating new familybusinesses with their husbands o: pare�ts; twohave the loss of feelingsof belongingness to either Japanor Brazil. ManyNikkeijin poig nantly i returnedto their formerjo bs or familybusinesses; fourare preparingnew fam ly busmesses; one remarked on their isolation: "In Brazil,we were calledJapones, but in Japan we becameBu rajiru­ has founda new salariedjob. jin (Brazilians). No matterwhere we go, we Nikkeijin,have no home." Such profoundeconomic insecurityha s pushed manyNikkeijin to remigrate to Japan. In Two BrazilianWives of Nikkeijinmen, in sharpcontrast, exhibited no sign of altered my interviews of July 1995, I repeatedly heardstories of Nikkeijin re turning to Japan after ethnicidentity as aresult of their migration. Accompanyingtheir husbandsin Japan brought a having failed in newly establishedbusinesses. My twenty informants, however, are firmly senseof accomplishment . and increasedself-confidenc e but no significantchange in their ethnic committed to rebuilding theirlives in Brazildespite the W1favorableec onomy. For them andthe1r identity as Brazilians. usbands, migration is definednot as an end itself, but as atemporary j h ourneyto makefull use of Upon their returnto Brazil,the eighteenJunior Nikkeijin informantshad to readjust their a "given oppor!Wlity" in order to obtainthe meansto improve their livesin Brazil. In thei Brazilian � identity in the context of the society that regarded them as a separateracial category. minds thereis no doubt that Brazilis their"homeland" where their "real" lifedevelops, while Having searched in vain for theirethnic roots in Japan,th ese Brazilian-bornwo men resettled in Japan is the "workplace" where they toil during the Brazilianeconomic crisis to acquire the Brazil withnew determination. They had finally come to defineBraz il astheir "true"h ome and means to better their lives upon their return. Compared to Brazil, they say, Japan seems to offer had accepted themselves as''true" B razilians--Brazilianswi th Japanese heritage. Eliana Pintoda littleindividual freedom to its citizens. Evidence forthis is foWld,for example, in the frequent Silva (Nisei, 38) explainedher journey,finding her own roots in Brazilafte r three years' sojourn observation that in Japan work is more valued than family. By contrast, in their view, familyis in Japan. more importantt han anything else in Brazil:"Brazilian s work to live_; Japanese live to work:" Moreover, Japanese men and women appear to them to be distant with one another and their My familyc ame to Brazil in 1957. I was bornin that year in Brazil. All other family conjugal relationships inegalitarian,as a result of which Japanese workin� women �ear�� brunt members were bornin Japan. Growing up in Brazil, I kept wondering why I wasthe of both domestic responsibility and economic activity-a practice they view as ep1tommng only Brazilian-bornmember in the family. And yet 1 was a child of Japanese parents. It gender inequality in Japan (Yamanaka 1996b). was confusing. When I went to Japan,I realizedthat I am culturally Brazilian,not Despite such critical views of Japan expressed by returnees, when asked about their Japanese. But I becamemore awareof my Japaneseheritage and now understandbetter changedself-perceptions, almost all women interviewedcited hei�htened self confid��e on the why my parents think in the ways they do. one hand, and renewed ethnic consciousness as Nikkeijin in Brazil on the other. Pos1ttve effects of employment on immigrantw omen's self image are widely reportedin the intem�tional .. Afterfour y ears of hard work in Japan, Akemi Barreto (Sansei, 38) analyzed what she migration literature. Wage work liberatesmigrant women fromtradition �! subservient� os1tions had come to understandit to meanto beNikkeijin in Brazil. During that period,her marriage in the family,allowing them to develop new personal awareness and social status m their 15 with a non,Nikkeijin husband wasshaken by his cultural maladjustment to Japan. As a result, domestic environment (Morokvasic 1984). My Nikkeijin informants areno exception. For the couple separated and Akemi took custody of their two youngdaughters. Having experienced

26 27 Yamanaka Household Strategies Yamanaka Household Strategies challenges and changes during her life in Japan, she cameto regard her grandparents as the "true" between Brazil and Japan, justified women's unexpected participation in the resultant exodus. Japanese with whom she could identify: Underlying their obvious economic motives, familyconcerns and cultural ties with Japansurface as the dominant factors shaping women's migration behavior and personal satisfaction from I learnedin Japan that I amdifferent fromJapanese. They are badly spoiled by affluence. migration. The opportunity of transnational migration also has entaileda reworking of household I am also different from my husbandwho lacked self-discipline. Finally, I strategies for upward mobility amongyoung Instead of the avenue of higher education, have come to conclude that I most respect my grandparents who leftJapan with strong they have now opted to seek achievement through self-employment. determination a long time ago.non-Nikkeijin I identifymyself with their strong will andam proud of Upon their returnto Brazil,migrant womenNikkeijin. cited both material satisfaction and being a descendant of them. I amdetermined to carryon their tradition in Braziland will �sychological empowerment as results of their migration. Their experience of ethnic marginality teach my daughters their ethnic heritage. Having endured many challenges in Japan,I m Japan forced them to renegotiate the meaning of their identity. The experience of having been should be able to overcome any problems I may now encounter in Brazil. received as strangers in their ancestral homelanddetached them fromtheir identificationwith Japru_i, and launched them on a new identity search, this time turnedtoward their birthplace,

Akemi's several years' sojournin Japan in search of her heritage culminated in the Brazil'. 3:°d the experience. Young returnees appear to be focusingprimarily realizationthat she owes her identity more to her strong-willed grandparents, who helpedfound on theu 1mmed1ate forebears'experience as immigrantsin Brazil asthey seeksources for their colonias Japonesas in the Brazilianrainforest 70 years ago, than to her ancestral homeland. She own ethnic identity.!"ikkeijin They come finally to defineNikkeijin their "home" as the landof their birth rather discovered that, after all, she is irretrievably and she cameto understand profoundly than as the "imagined communities" (Anderson 1991) of their ancestry. Sojourningin their what it means to be Similarly, a few young I interviewed in Hamamatsu in ancestral country has therefore servedto redefine their ethnic identity, national consciousness July 1996 discussed a need to redefinetheir ethnicNikkeijin, identity based on their own understanding of andstrategies for economic survival. what it is to be Nikkeijin.Instead of tolerating the stigmatizedNikkeijin image of they emphasized a need to returnto ethnicroots in their birth country andrediscover the ideal image ENDNOTES of inheritedNikkeijin. from their grandparents. In order to withstand ethnicNikkeijin, discrimination, they also stressed the importance power," symbolizing ethnic solidarity among 200,000 Acknowledgements This chapter is a revised version of an earlier paper presented at the 1996 Nikkeijinresidents in Japan. annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. This study is funded by the Abe In short, as these examplesof"Nikkeijin demonstrate, ethnicity is subjectively defined in the process Fellowship Program, The Center forGlobal Partnershipand the Social Science ResearchCouncil. Nikkeijinof social interaction with other groups. Consequently, ethnicidentity is constantly renegotiated, I thank Eunice Koga forher research assistanceand interpretingin my fieldwork with Portuguese reconstructed and redefined as the group's position in society alters over time (Barth 1969). speakers. I also thank Gerald Berremanand Ruth Krulfeldfor their helpfulcomments. Historical continuity is important in this process because members of the group inevitably tum their attention to their ethnic roots in search of "authentic" cultural symbols representing their I . Ten years earlier, 790 Japaneseimmigrated to Peruin 1899, beginningthe new page of "traditional" ideals and beliefs. Return migration of women to their ancestralcountry the Japanese immigration historyto South America. Like JapaneseBrazilians, has therefore opened a new chapter in their individual biographies and in their community's descendantsof Japaneseimmigrants also returnedto Japan from Perufor wage labor in history in Brazil. Nikkeij'in the early 1990s.

Conclusion 2. Information forthe summary historyin this and the followingsection is derived froma variety of sources, including Suzuki(1965), Fujimura ( 1970), Sims (1972), Saito ( 1976), By tracing the immigration history of in Brazil, this study identifiesthree Maeyama(1982), Takahashi ( 1990), the Committee forCompiling Eighty-YearHistory distinctive categories of Japanese Brazilian women who have leftBrazil since the late 1980s to of Japanese Immigration to Brazil( CCEYH 1991) and Suzuki(1992). work temporarilyin Japan. The women comprisingNikkeijin each of these threecategories, Seniors, Juniors, and Brazilian Wives, are distinguished by their places in their respective immigration 3. In the sameperiod (1953- 73), Japanesealso emigrated to Argentina (total number histories, their familylife cycles, their socioeconomic statuses and their ethnicbackgrounds. 4,600), Paraguay (7,500) and Bolivia (5,200). While all these are affectedby legal barriers, exploitative brokers and the exclusivity of Japanese 4. According to Oshimoto's Chart11 (1967: 13), the proportion of women amongthe culture, the threecategories exhibit diverse but characteristic approaches to understanding and emigrantswas 30 to 40 percent between 1946 and 1960. Because numbers arenot addressing problems, depending upon resources and opportunities available to them in the host presented in the bar-graph chart,it is impossible to preciselymeasure the proportion. society. During the economic crisis that gripped Brazil in the late 1980s, and in view of the 5. This class will almost certainly diminish in the nearfuture as its elderly immigrant welcoming climate of Japanese immigration law for temporarylabor migration to Japan members die off andthe young Brazilian-bornstudent membersgrad uate into the new became anattractive solution to the problem of maintaining a middle class income. The middle class. desirability of a double income in Japan, combined withNikkeij"in, the undesira bility of dividing families

28 29 Yamanaka Yamanaka Household Strategies Household Strategies

According to Maeyama (1975:240-6; 1984:455), Japanese are the most important group 6. The rule requiring parents to register the birth ofa child within fourteen days at the among those who do not belong to either racial category, constituting a category oftheir Japanese authority was intended to prevent dual citizenship in the case ofJapanese born own. in a country where the principle ofjus soli (law ofplace) prevailed, as in Brazil and the United States (Yamada and Tsuchiya, 1984:68-71). This period was lengthened from 14 REFERENCES CITED days to three months under the revised 1985 Nationality Law. Anderson, Benedict 7. Employers ofillegal workers became subject to two years imprisonment or a maximum 1991 Imagined Communities. London: Verso. oftwo million yen ($20,000). Asahi Shimbun 8. Renewal ofthis visa category is easily, and therefore frequently, done, as a result of 1993 Japan Almanac. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun. which Nikkeijin and their families can remain longer than initially permitted. Barth, Fredrik 9. Among the five Nisei sub-groups is one woman who was born in pre-war Japan but moved to Brazil with her family when she was a young child. 1969 Introduction. In Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Fredrik Barth, ed. Pp. 9-39. Boston: Little Brown & Co. 10. Among the Junior Women, daughters of the post-war Issei tend to spcak good Japanese because oftheir parents' influence. The majority of Sansei, however, do not. Brinton, Mary C. 1993 Women and the Economic Miracle: Gender and Work in Postwar Japan. Berkeley: II. Interracial marriage rates vary considerably by region in Brazil, ranging from 69.2 University ofCalifornia Press. percent to in Central West to 23.3 in South. This secms to reflect differences in thc sizc of Japanese population by region which is a result ofdifferent histories of Japanese Castles, Stephen community settlement: South being the oldest and largest settlement region, compared to 1984 Here for Good: Western Europe's New Ethnic Minorities. London: Pluto Press. Central West and North which are more recent and therefore constitute smaller settlement regions (S1I.o Paulo Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyujo 1988: I04-05). Committee for Compiling Eight-Year History ofJapanese Immigration to Brazil (CCEYH) 1991 Burajiru Nihon lmin Hachijunenshi. Sao Paulo: Burajiru Nihon Bunka Kyokai. 12. In my Nikkeijin data, of90 men there are 12 non-Nikkeijin married to Nikkeijin wives. The focus ofthis study is exclusively on women; thus little discussion on non- Cornelius, Wayne A. Nikkeijin husbands is included. 1994 Japan: The Illusion ofImmigration Control. In Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective. Wayne A. Cornelius, Philip L. Martin, and James F. Hollifield, eds. Pp. 13. Names ofinformants have been altered and their ages are those at the time of 375-410. Stanford: Stanford University Press. interview. Dalby, Liza 14. An extreme example ofJapanese femininity is found among geisha, as described, for 1983 Geisha. New York: Vintage Books. example in Dalby's participatory study (1983:171-73). According to her, geisha's manners with their clients suggest the importance ofthe nuanced ideas ofsuperiority and Fujimura, Jandyra inferiority in the rituals ofguest and host. 1970 Burajiru ni okeru Nikkei Shakai no Kouzou to sono Tenkai Katei-Nikkei Nomin no Seikatsu wo Chushin to shite. Iju Kenkyu 6 (March):37-51. 15. Morokvasic (1984:893-5) states that, while incorporation ofmigrant women into wage work may exacerbate women's exploitation, it also increases women's sense of Gabaccia, DOIUla independence, respect and autonomy. The changes brought by wage work, however, 1992 Introduction. In Seeking Common Ground: Multidisciplinary Studies of must be interpreted in light ofthe specific socioeconomic and cultural context of women's Immigrant Women in the United States. Donna Gabaccia, ed. pp. xi-xxvi. Westport, lives. CT: Greenwood Press. 16. The racial category, "people ofcolor" (0 homem de cor) includes blacks (negro) and people ofmixed heritage (mulato and pardo) as opposed to the white category (branco)..

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Ichioka, Yuji Nomura, Gail M. 1980 Amerika Nadeshiko: Japanese Immigrant Women in the United States, 1900-1924. 1989 Issei Working Women in Hawaii. In Making Waves: An Anthology ofWritings by Pacific Historical Review 49:339-357. and about Asian Women. Asian Women United ofCalifomia, ed. Pp. 135-148. Boston: Beacon Press. Japan Immigration Association 1989-95 Shutsunyu Kanri Kankei Tokei Gaiyo. Tokyo, Japan. Oshimoto, Naomasa 1967 Tokei kara mita Sengo Kaigai Iju no Keiko. Iju Kenkyu 1 (October):9-17. JETRO Slio Paulo Center 1992 Burajiru Kiso Johoshu. Sao Paulo: JETRO Center. Saito, Iliroshi Lesser, Jeffrey 1976 The Integration and Participation of the Japanese and Their Descendants in 1995 Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question. Berkeley: Brazilian Society. International Migration 14(3):183-199. University ofCalifornia Press. Slio Paulo Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyujo Maeyama, Takashi 1988 Burajiru ni okeru Nikkei Jinko Chosa Hokokusho-l987, 1988. Slio Paulo: Slio 1975 Familiarization ofthe Unfamiliar World: The Family, Networks, and Groups in Paulo Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyujo. Brazilian City. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, Latin American Studies Program Dissertation Series 59. Shinozuka, Eiko 1991 Tsukisoifu toshite Hataraku Nikkei Brurajiru Fujin: Gaikokujin Rodo tono Kanren 1982 Burajiru no Nikkeijin ni okeru Aidentiti no Hensen-Tokuni Sutoratejii tono wo Saguru. In Keizai no Henka to ROOo Shijo: Gaikokujin ROOosha no Ukeire to Kanren ni oite. Latin American Studies 4: 181-217. Nihon no Rodo Shijo. Tokei Kenkyukai, ed. Pp.38-57. Tokyo: Koyo Sokushin Jigyodan. 1984 Burajiru Nikkeijin ni okeru Esunishiti to Aidentiti-Ninshikiteki, Seijiteki Gensho toshite. Minzokugaku Kenkyu 48(4):444-458. Sims, Harold D. 1972 Japanese Postwar Migration to Brazil: An Analysis ofData Presently Available. 1990 Nikkeijin (Burajiru}--Chukan Mainoriti no Mondai. Bunka Jinruigaku 7:208-221. International Migration Review 6(3):246-265.

1996 Dona Marugarida Watanabe: Imin, Rojin Fukushi no Gojusan-nen. Tokyo: Skidmore, Thomas E. Ochanomizu Shobo. 1990 Racial Ideas and Social Policy in Brazil, 1870-1940. In The Idea ofRace in Latin America, 1870-1940. Richard Graham, ed. pp.7-36. Austin: University ofTexas Press. Margolis, Maxine 1994 Little Brazil: An Ethnography ofBrazilian Immigrants in New York City. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Suzuki, Joji 1992 Nihonjin Dekasegi Imin. Tokyo: Heibonsha. Martin, Linda G. 1989 The Graying ofJapan. Population Bulletin 44(2). Suzuki, Teiiti 1965 Japanese Immigrants in Brazil. Population Index 31(2):1177-1138.

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