Why did Japanese-Brazilians become immigrants? Pioneers of multicultural coexistence, 1,000 grandchildren under false family registers

The Heisei history of “immigrants” and the Japanese people became more serious with the “dekasegi” boom among Japanese-Brazilians. Nikkei are descendants of Japanese people who once immigrated to Central and South America. At one time, there were more than 300,000 people, who were the pioneers of “immigrants” who settled in Japan. It was also the beginning of “multicultural coexistence” for the Japanese people.

Street propaganda vehicle set on fire, riot police dispatched

Homi Danchi in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, where many Japanese-Brazilians live. Of the approximately 6,700 residents, approximately 3,800 are foreigners, accounting for 57%. More than 85% are Japanese-Brazilians who work at Toyota-related factories.

Today, the landscape of the suburban housing complex is peaceful, but in the past there was serious conflict with Japanese residents over violations of garbage disposal rules, illegal parking, and late-night noise caused by Japanese-Brazilians.

In 1999 (Heisei 11), a large street propaganda vehicle was set on fire due to trouble between some Brazilians and right-wing officials, and riot police were called in as the two sides faced each other. One resident said, “Right-wingers and biker gangs were shouting “Foreigners get out!” every day.It was called a garbage housing complex, and it was the worst of times.”

The housing complex was initially called a “model case of multicultural coexistence,” but it has passed through a period of conflict and is still being explored. While the number of Japanese residents is decreasing, the number of foreign residents has remained unchanged, and since 2017 the number of foreign residents has exceeded the number.

unprecedented dekasegi boom

The Dekasegi boom began in 1990 with the enforcement of the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Act. This is because descendants of Japanese people who once immigrated overseas were given the status of residence of “long-term resident.”

Shigeru Takayake (73), former director of the Ministry of Justice’s Immigration Bureau and professor at Nihon University, said, “The acceptance of people of Japanese ancestry takes into consideration regional and blood ties with our country, and is not an acceptance of so-called foreign workers or immigrants.” “It was,” he explains.

However, because the status of residence could be renewed for up to five years and there were no restrictions on working, Takataka said, “As a result, many Japanese descendants came to Japan as “foreigners for the purpose of working,” and their stays became longer. “Immigrantization” occurred.”

The background was the labor shortage caused by the bubble economy in the late 1980s and the economic collapse of Brazil. The Brazilian side is also aiming for Japanese-Americans to work in Japan, and a second-generation Japanese-American state legislator from São Paulo state, which has a large Japanese-American population, reportedly visited Japan and petitioned Liberal Democratic Party members.

Illegal employment of Bangladeshis and Pakistanis has become a problem in Japan, but Junichi Akashi, a professor at the University of Tsukuba (immigration policy), says, “I don’t know if it’s a political effort, but I think it’s important to stabilize the legal status of people of Japanese ancestry in Japan.” “There may have been a simple idea that people of Japanese descent were easier to accept than other ethnic groups.”

On the other hand, as the dekasegi boom heats up, the issue of “fake Nikkei” has become a problem, in which Brazilians and Peruvians who are unrelated to Japanese ancestry forge their “family registers” and “birth certificates” and come to Japan pretending to be Nikkei. . In the 2000s, the Osaka Immigration Bureau investigated and found that due to these forgeries, an elderly Japanese man had many children, and by tracing only these records, they found that he had 1,000 grandchildren. There were some cases.

You can stay in Japan without knowing Japanese.

The legal reforms enacted in 1990 are also known as the “Great Heisei Reforms,” and are said to be the basis for the current approach to accepting foreigners.

Although this has not been applied in the past, the provision to grant the status of “permanent resident” upon entering the country has been deleted. In order to obtain permanent resident status, a person must first stay in Japan under a different status of residence. This clarifies that Japan does not directly accept “immigrants.”

The status of residence system was established, and a new offense of promoting illegal employment was established, which would place the responsibility of the “employer” as well, but this did not apply to Japanese Americans who are “long-term residents” with no restrictions on employment.

Japanese-Brazilians who became “immigrants” settled in Aichi Prefecture, where the Homi Danchi is located, as well as in castle towns of automobile industry companies, such as Hamamatsu City and Oizumi Town, Gunma Prefecture. Local governments now have to provide life support that they have never experienced before, such as Japanese language education and the provision of information in foreign languages.

An immigration official said, “Chinese and Korean people come to Japan to study abroad and learn Japanese, but because Nikkei people are considered to be “descendants of Japanese people,” there are no questions asked about their academic background or work history, and they are extremely reluctant to do so. “I was able to stay in Japan indefinitely without trying to learn Japanese.”

“For the first time, a situation has arisen where foreigners who cannot speak Japanese are staying in Japan for a long period of time.”

At its peak in 2007, there were approximately 300,000 Japanese-Brazilians, but in the aftermath of the Lehman Shock in 2008, the number of Japanese Brazilians was cut off. The Japanese government encouraged people of Japanese descent who had lost their jobs and were unable to find re-employment to return home by offering 300,000 yen in airfare to those who wished to do so, and approximately 80,000 people returned home.

A second-generation Japanese-Brazilian man living in Kanagawa Prefecture said, “At that time, those who wanted to work there returned home, and those who remained decided to work hard in Japan.”

Currently, of the approximately 3.41 million foreign residents in Japan, approximately 210,000 are Japanese Brazilians. At its peak, it was the third largest country after China and South Korea, but it is now fifth.

In 2020, graffiti was painted on a mural art aimed at multicultural coexistence at the Homi housing complex. The man who was arrested on suspicion of damaging a building was a Japanese-Brazilian resident who was supposed to be living with them. The man denied the charges, and the charges were later dismissed, and the motive is unknown.