Nikkei community in Brazil – formation of identity and integration challenges

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the identity formation evolution for the ethnic minority group of Japanese origin and their integration challenges in the Brazilian society. The Nikkei community is one of the largest ethnic minority groups in Brazil and the largest Japanese community outside Japan’s territory. In the face of one of the largest refugee crises in Europe, the analysis of the collision of such contrasting cultures and the attempt to coexist in the same space can help to anticipate integration challenges and help in the formation of experts and people’s general opinion on this topic. This article will allow us to reach the conclusion that regardless of the current positive preconception, still there exist the conceptions of “we” and “they” because of some of reasons such as the desire of the Japanese-Brazilian community to remain separate maintaining their status, also because of the positive discrimination of the majority and, finally, because of different physical characteristics which are evident.