Japanese Brazilians

Background Between the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, coffee was the main export product of Brazil. At first, Brazilian farmers used African slave labour in the coffee plantations, but in 1850, the slave trade was abolished in Brazil. To solve the labour shortage, the Brazilian elite decided to attract European immigrants to work on the coffee plantations. This was also consistent with the government's push towards "whitening" the country. The hope was that through procreation the large African and Native American groups would be eliminated or reduced. The government and farmers offered to pay European immigrants' passage. The plan encouraged millions of Europeans, most of them Italians, to migrate to Brazil. However, once in Brazil, the immigrants received very low salaries and worked in poor conditions, including long working hours and frequent ill-treatment by their bosses. Because of this, in 1902, Italy enacted the Prinetti Decree, prohibiting subsidized emigration to Brazil. Japan had been isolated from the rest of the world during the 265 years of the Edo period (Tokugawa Shogunate), without wars or epidemics brought in from abroad. With its agricultural techniques of the time, Japan produced only the food it needed and had practically no formal stocks for difficult periods. Any agricultural crop failure caused widespread famine. The end of the Tokugawa Shogunate gave way to an intense project of modernization and opening to the outside world during the Meiji era. Despite the agrarian reform, mechanization of agriculture made thousands of peasants unemployed. Thousands of other small peasants became indebted or lost their land because they could not pay the high taxes. The end of feudalism in Japan generated great poverty in the rural population, so many Japanese people began to emigrate in search of better living conditions. By the 1930s, Japanese industrialisation had significantly boosted the population. However, prospects for Japanese people to migrate to other countries were limited. The United States had banned non-white immigration from some parts of the world on the basis that they would not integrate into society; this Exclusion clause, of the 1924 Immigration Act, specifically targeted the Japanese. At the same time in Australia, the White Australia policy prevented the immigration of non-whites to Australia. First immigrants In 1907, the Brazilian and the Japanese governments signed a treaty permitting Japanese migration to Brazil. This was due in part to the decrease in the Italian immigration to Brazil and a new labour shortage on the coffee plantations. Also, Japanese immigration to the United States had been barred by the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907. The first Japanese immigrants (781 people – mostly farmers) came to Brazil in 1908 on the . About half of these immigrants were Okinawans from southern Okinawa, who had faced 29 years of oppression by the Japanese government following the Ryukyu Islands's annexation, becoming the first Ryukyuan Brazilians. They travelled from the Japanese port of Kobe via the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Many of them worked on coffee plantations. In the first seven years, 3,434 more Japanese families (14,983 people) arrived. The beginning of World War I in 1914 started a boom in Japanese migration to Brazil. Between 1917 and 1940, over 164,000 Japanese came to Brazil, with 90% of them going to São Paulo, New life in Brazil The vast majority of Japanese immigrants intended to work a few years in Brazil, make some money, and go home. However, "getting rich quick" was a dream that was almost impossible to achieve. This was exacerbated by the fact that it was obligatory for Japanese immigrants to Brazil prior to the Second World War to emigrate in familial units. Because multiple persons necessitated monetary support in these familial units, Japanese immigrants found it nearly impossible to return home to Japan even years after emigrating to Brazil. The landowners in Brazil still had a slavery mentality. Immigrants, although employees, had to confront the rigidity and lack of labour laws. Indebted and subjected to hours of exhaustive work, often suffering physical violence, suicide, (to escape at night), and strikes were some of the attitudes taken by many Japanese because of the exploitation on coffee farms. Even when they were free of their contractual obligations on Brazil's coffee plantations, it was often impossible for immigrants to return home due to their meager earnings. The first land purchase by the Japanese in Brazil took place in São Paulo, in 1911. Many Japanese immigrants purchased land in rural Brazil, having been forced to invest what little capital they had into land in order to someday make enough to return to Japan. As independent farmers, Japanese immigrants formed communities that were ethnically isolated from the rest of Brazilian society. The immigrants who settled and formed these communities referred to themselves as and their settlements as . By the 1930s, Brazilians complained that the independent Japanese communities had formed , or "racial cysts", and were unwilling to further integrate the Japanese Brazilians into Brazilian society. With Brazil under the leadership of Getúlio Vargas and the Empire of Japan involved on the Axis side in World War II, Japanese Brazilians became more isolated from their mother country. Japanese leaders and diplomats in Brazil left for Japan after Brazil severed all relations with Japan on January 29, 1942, leading Japanese Brazilians to fend for themselves in an increasingly hostile country. Vargas's regime instituted several measures that targeted the Japanese population in Brazil, including the loss of freedom to travel within Brazil, censorship of Japanese newspapers (even those printed in Portuguese), and imprisonment if Japanese Brazilians were caught speaking Japanese in public. police notice from 1942, stating a ban on speaking Italian, German and Japanese in public, as well as other limitations on citizens of Italy, Germany and Japan. Some years before World War II, the government of President Getúlio Vargas initiated a process of forced assimilation of people of immigrant origin in Brazil. The Constitution of 1934 had a legal provision about the subject: "The concentration of immigrants anywhere in the country is prohibited, the law should govern the selection, location and assimilation of the alien". The assimilationist project affected mainly Japanese, Italian, Jewish, and German immigrants and their descendants. The formation of "ethnic cysts" among immigrants of non-Portuguese origin prevented the realization of the whitening project of the Brazilian population. The government, then, started to act on these communities of foreign origin to force them to integrate into a "Brazilian culture" with Portuguese roots. It was the dominant idea of a unification of all the inhabitants of Brazil under a single "national spirit". During World War II, Brazil severed relations with Japan. Japanese newspapers and teaching the Japanese language in schools were banned, leaving Portuguese as the only option for Japanese descendants. Newspapers in Italian or German were also advised to cease production, as Italy and Germany were Japan's allies in the war. The Japanese appeared as undesirable immigrants within the "whitening" and assimilationist policy of the Brazilian government. In the early 1960s, the Japanese Brazilian population in the cities already surpassed that of the countryside. As the vast majority of families that moved to São Paulo and cities in Paraná had few resources and were headed by first and second-generation Japanese, it was imperative that their business did not require a large initial investment or advanced knowledge of the Portuguese language. Thus, a good part of the immigrants began to dedicate themselves to small trade or to the provision of basic services, where dyeing stood out. In the 1970s, 80% of the 3,500 establishments that washed and ironed the clothes of São Paulo citizens were Japanese. According to anthropologist Célia Sakurai: "The business was convenient for the families, because they could live at the back of the dye shop and do all the work without having to hire employees. In addition, the communication required by the activity was brief and simple". According to a 1995 research conducted by Datafolha, 53% of adult Japanese Brazilians had a college degree, compared to only 9% of Brazilians in general. According to the newspaper Gazeta do Povo, in Brazil "common sense is that Japanese descendants are studious, disciplined, do well at school, pass the admission exams more easily and, in most cases, have great affinity for the exact science careers". According to a 2009 survey carried out with data from the University of São Paulo and Unesp, even though Japanese descendants were 1.2% of the population of the city of São Paulo and made up less than 4% of those enrolled in the entrance exams, they were about 15% of those approved. A 2017 survey revealed that Brazilians of Japanese descent are the wealthiest group in Brazil. The survey concluded that Brazilians with a Japanese surname are the ones who earn the most (73.40 reais per hour): File:Família Japonesa em Bastos 1930.jpg|Japanese family in Bastos, SP File:Japanese Workers in Coffee Plantation.jpg|Japanese immigrants working on coffee plantation File:Japanese Workers in Coffee Sieving.jpg|Japanese immigrants working on coffee plantation File:Japanese Immigrants disembarkment in Brazil 1937.jpg|Japanese immigrants arriving to the Port of Santos File:Japanese Immigrants in tea Plantation 02.jpg|Japanese Immigrants on tea plantation in Registro, SP File:Japanese Immigrants with silkworm breeding 01.jpg|Japanese immigrants with silkworm breeding File:Commerce japonais, São Paulo-années 1940.jpg|Japanese store in São Paulo File:Fábio Riodi Yassuda, Ministro da Indústria e Comércio..tif|alt=Fábio Riodi Yassuda, a Nisei who became the first Brazilian minister of Japanese descent.|, a Nisei who became the first Brazilian minister of Japanese descent. == Integration and intermarriage ==

Assimilation into Brazilian society The majority of Japanese immigrants who arrived before World War II did not intend to stay permanently in Brazil; they simply wanted to work for a few years, save money, and return to Japan. As a result, they did not care about assimilating into Brazilian society. The immigrants' children attended Japanese schools, in rural Brazil, where they learned not only the Japanese language but also how to be Japanese After World War II, Japan resurfaced as an economic dominant force, developing a reconstructed identity for the Japanese people in Brazil. The Nikkei were seen as the "common capitalist identity" and many children of immigrant farming communities travelled to the city of São Paulo to pursue liberal professions. In these schools, they studied Japan's history and geography but knew little about Brazil's history and geography. They tried to live as if they had never left Japan. This pattern changed with Japan's defeat in World War II. At that time, many Japanese immigrants realized they were deeply rooted in Brazil and that returning to a war-ravaged Japan was no longer worth it. On the other hand, Japanese who immigrated to Brazil after the war arrived with different goals; having experienced the horrors of war, they aimed not to return to Japan but to make Brazil their new homeland. Consequently, Japanese immigrants who arrived after the war assimilated into Brazilian society more easily and tended not to transmit Japanese culture and language to their children as much as those who had arrived before the war. Successive generations of Japanese descendants, Sansei (third generation) and Yonsei (fourth generation), showed a greater degree of assimilation into Brazilian society than the Nisei (second generation), as the latter remained more immersed in their parents' Japanese culture compared to later generations, who were increasingly integrated into Brazilian culture. However, "Brazilianization" did not mean a complete abandonment of Japanese values and traditions by the descendants. Japanese influence continued to manifest in various aspects, such as cuisine. Other values preserved by the descendants included an emphasis on discipline and education. According to a IBGE publication: By contrast, descendants of Japanese people, because of their physical features reminiscent of the Asian country from which their ancestors came, carry the distinction of continuing to be seen as "Japanese" in the country where they were born. This occurs even among people of mixed heritage, or those who have only one Japanese parent. Mixed-heritage individuals who inherit more Japanese features continue to be labeled "Japanese," while those with more non-Japanese features are more easily seen as "Brazilian." Even individuals with origins in other countries of the Far East, such as China and Korea, are often called "Japanese" in Brazil. Ultimately, physical appearance, rather than nationality or culture, defines someone as "Japanese" in Brazil. Generations and intermarriage As of 1987, many Japanese Brazilians belonged to the third generation (sansei), who made up 41.33% of the community. First generation (issei) were 12.51%, second generation (nisei) were 30.85% and fourth generation (yonsei) 12.95%. Japanese immigrants rarely married a non-Japanese person; however, their descendants, starting from the second and third generations, increasingly began to marry people of non-Japanese origin. By 1987, most Japanese Brazilians were still of full Japanese descent, with 28% having some non-Japanese ancestry. Only 6% of second-generation Japanese Brazilians (children) were mixed-race, but 42% of third-generation (grandchildren) were mixed and a majority of 61% of fourth-generation (great-grandchildren) were mixed. is the granddaughter of Japanese on her mother's side, and of a Swiss and a Lebanese on her father's side. By 1987, 42% of third-generation Japanese Brazilians were of mixed heritage. Most of the fourth-generation Japanese Brazilians no longer have significant ties with the Japanese community. According to a 2008 study, only 12% of fourth-generation people lived with their grandparents and only 0.4% of them lived with their great-grandparents. In the past generations, many Japanese Brazilians lived in the countryside and it was common for at least three generations to live together, thus preserving Japanese culture. In a rural environment, the proximity between community members and the strength of family relationships meant that Japanese traditions remained more alive. However, over 90% of fourth-generation Japanese Brazilians live in urban areas, where relationships are generally more impersonal, and they tend to assimilate Brazilian customs more than Japanese ones. In 2005, a boy named Enzo Yuta Nakamura Onishi was the first sixth-generation person of Japanese descent to be born in Brazil. By 2022, less than 5% of Brazil's Japanese-origin population was Japanese-born (down from 12.51% in 1987), given that Japanese immigration to Brazil practically ceased in the 1970s. Religion Immigrants, as well as most Japanese, were mostly followers of Shinto and Buddhism. In the Japanese communities in Brazil, there was a strong effort by Brazilian priests to proselytize the Japanese. More recently, intermarriage with Catholics also contributed to the growth of Catholicism in the community. Currently, 60% of Japanese-Brazilians are Roman Catholics and 25% are adherents of a Japanese religion. The country has a growing number of amateur sumo wrestlers, with the only purpose-built sumo arena outside Japan located in São Paulo. Brazil also produced (as of January 2022) sixteen professional wrestlers, with the most successful being Kaisei Ichirō. Language in Japan's Square in Curitiba, Paraná. The knowledge of the Japanese and Portuguese languages reflects the integration of the Japanese in Brazil over several generations. Although first generation immigrants will often not learn Portuguese well or not use it frequently, most second generation are bilingual. The third generation, however, are most likely monolingual in Portuguese or speak, along with Portuguese, non-fluent Japanese. A study conducted in the Japanese Brazilian communities of Aliança and Fukuhaku, both in the state of São Paulo, released information on the language spoken by these people. Before coming to Brazil, 12.2% of the first generation interviewed from Aliança reported they had studied the Portuguese language in Japan, and 26.8% said to have used it once on arrival in Brazil. Many of the Japanese immigrants took classes of Portuguese and learned about the history of Brazil before migrating to the country. In Fukuhaku only 7.7% of the people reported they had studied Portuguese in Japan, but 38.5% said they had contact with Portuguese once on arrival in Brazil. All the immigrants reported they spoke exclusively Japanese at home in the first years in Brazil. However, in 2003, the figure dropped to 58.5% in Aliança and 33.3% in Fukuhaku. This probably reflects that through contact with the younger generations of the family, who speak mostly Portuguese, many immigrants also began to speak Portuguese at home. The first Brazilian-born generation, the Nisei, alternate between the use of Portuguese and Japanese. Regarding the use of Japanese at home, 64.3% of Nisei informants from Aliança and 41.5% from Fukuhaku used Japanese when they were children. In comparison, only 14.3% of the third generation, Sansei, reported to speak Japanese at home when they were children. It reflects that the second generation was mostly educated by their Japanese parents using the Japanese language. On the other hand, the third generation did not have much contact with their grandparent's language, and most of them speak the national language of Brazil, Portuguese, as their mother tongue. Japanese Brazilians usually speak Japanese more often when they live along with a first generation relative. Those who do not live with a Japanese-born relative usually speak Portuguese more often. Japanese spoken in Brazil is usually a mix of different Japanese dialects, since the Japanese community in Brazil came from all regions of Japan, influenced by the Portuguese language. The high numbers of Brazilian immigrants returning from Japan will probably produce more Japanese speakers in Brazil. In Brazil's 1940 census, 144,523 Japanese immigrants were counted, more than 91% of whom were in the state of São Paulo. In the 1950 census, 129,192 Japanese were recorded, with 84.3% in São Paulo and 11.9% in Paraná. The data is shown in the table below: The maximum number of Japanese residents in Brazil was recorded in the 1970 census: 154,000. The states with at least one thousand Japanese residents were: São Paulo (116,566), Paraná (20,644), Mato Grosso (3,466), Pará (3,349), Rio Grande do Sul (1,619), Rio de Janeiro (1,451), Minas Gerais (1,406), and Guanabara (1,380). Since Japanese immigration to Brazil practically ceased in the 1970s, by 2022 less than 5% of Brazil's Japanese-origin population was Japanese-born, with over 95% being Brazilians whose Japanese ancestors immigrated to Brazil over the last five generations. By 2023, the number of Japanese citizens living in Brazil had dropped further to 46,900. In the 2022 Brazilian census, 850,130 people identified as "yellow," a designation by the IBGE for people of Asian descent: Japanese, Chinese, Korean. All municipalities with the highest proportions of yellow individuals were in the states of São Paulo (SP) and Paraná (PR), namely: Assaí (PR) – 11.05% of the population; Bastos (SP) – 10.3%; Uraí (PR) – 5.9%; São Sebastião da Amoreira (PR) – 4.8%; Pereira Barreto (SP) – 4.2%; Nova América da Colina (PR) – 3.8%; and Mogi das Cruzes (SP) – 3.7%. In numerical terms, the municipalities with the most yellow residents were São Paulo (238,603 people), Curitiba (23,635), Londrina (18,026), and Maringá (13,465). In 2022, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that there were 2 million people of Japanese origin in Brazil, but only 47,472 had Japanese nationality. == Image gallery ==

File:Japanese Immigrants logging.jpg|Japanese in a Brazilian forest. File:Japanese Immigrants in their own Potato Farm.jpg|Japanese immigrants with their planting of potatoes. File:Japanese immigrant family in Brazil 01.jpg|Japanese family in Brazil. File:Japanese immigrant family in Brazil c1930, Museu Histórico da Imigração Japonesa.png|Japanese family on a banana plantation in Brazil (c1930) File:Japanese Immigrants in a train.jpg|A train taking Japanese immigrants from Santos to São Paulo (1935). File:Japanese Workers in Coffee Gathering.jpg|Japanese on coffee plantation (1930). File:Desembarque_Kasato_Maru.jpg|The first immigrants on the ship (1908). File:Japoneses_no_brasil.jpg|Japanese immigrants in Brazil. File:Masaji Ishida and Kiyono Watanabe.jpg|Marriage of Japanese immigrants at São Paulo state, Brazil. File:Norimiti ishida e Francisca Ribeiro da Silva.jpg|Brazilian couple. Inter-racial couple in Brazil; unusual during the '60s in rural areas. File:Oomoto in Brazil.jpg|Japanese in São Paulo-Brazil, Liberdade neighborhood, in a Shinto chapel. File:Massaji Ishida.jpg|Brazilian issei, (first generation of Japanese immigrant), reading newspaper in Portuguese, while the shown title is about Kardec spiritism (a French–Brazilian sect) which is quite similar to Shinto and Buddhist principles. File:Zé Ocada.jpg|Group of Japanese descendants with Brazilians working resting after tree cutting, to clear areas for coffee plantations in Brazil, '50s and '60s. File:Norimiti.jpg|Brazilians, second generation after Japanese immigration (sanseis) in rural areas, coffee plantations, São Paulo state, Brazil. Japanese from Maringá A 2008 census revealed details about the population of Japanese origin from the city of Maringá in Paraná, making it possible to have a profile of the Japanese-Brazilian population. • Numbers There were 4,034 families of Japanese descent from Maringá, comprising 14,324 people. • Dekasegi 1,846 or 15% of Japanese Brazilians from Maringá were working in Japan. • Generations Of the 12,478 people of Japanese origin living in Maringá, 6.61% were Issei (born in Japan); 35.45% were Nisei (children of Japanese); 37.72% were Sansei (grandchildren) and 13.79% were Yonsei (great-grandchildren). • Average age The average age was of 40.12 years old • Gender 52% of Japanese Brazilians from the city were women. • Average number of children per woman 2.4 children (similar to the average Southern Brazilian woman) • Religion Most were Roman Catholics (32% of Sansei, 27% of Nisei, 10% of Yonsei and 2% of Issei). Protestant religions were the second most followed (6% of Nisei, 6% of Sansei, 2% of Yonsei and 1% of Issei) and next was Buddhism (5% of Nisei, 3% of Issei, 2% of Sansei and 1% of Yonsei). • Family 49.66% were married. • Knowledge of the Japanese language 47% can understand, read and write in Japanese. 31% of the second generation and 16% of the third generation can speak Japanese. • Schooling 31% elementary education; 30% secondary school and 30% higher education. • Mixed-race A total of 20% were mixed-race (have some non-Japanese origin). == Reversal in the migration flow (Dekasegi) ==

Starting in the late 1980s, there was a reversal in the migration flow between Brazil and Japan. Brazil entered an economic crisis, known as "Década Perdida", with inflation reaching 1,037.53% in 1988 and 1,782.85% in 1989. At the same time, Japan's economy was experiencing impressive growth, making it one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The 1980s were called "baburu keizai" (the Japanese economic bubble). The crisis in Brazil and prosperity in Japan led approximately 85,000 Japanese and their descendants living in Brazil to move to Japan between 1980 and 1990. Brazilians who went to work in Japan became known as "Dekasegis." Because of their Japanese ancestry, the Japanese government presumed that Brazilians would be more easily integrated into Japanese society. In fact, this easy integration did not happen, since Japanese Brazilians and their children born in Japan are treated as foreigners by native Japanese. This apparent contradiction between being and seeming causes conflicts of adaptation for the migrants and their acceptance by the natives. Most Brazilians who go to work in Japan are not poor, but rather middle-class individuals, who were particularly affected by Brazil's economic crises. This population, attempting to maintain or improve their standard of living, began seeking better economic conditions in Japan, the country of their ancestors. Many Brazilians go to Japan intending to work temporarily and later return with financial savings. However, these intentions are not always fulfilled, and many Brazilians opted to stay permanently in Japan. Cities and prefectures with the most Brazilians in Japan were Hamamatsu, Aichi, Shizuoka, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Gunma. Brazilians in Japan are usually educated. However, they are employed in the Japanese automotive and electronics factories. Many Brazilians are subjected to hours of exhausting work, earning a small salary by Japanese standards. Nevertheless, in 2002, Brazilians living in Japan sent US$2.5 billion to Brazil. Due to the severe financial crisis that hit Japan starting in 2008, many Brazilians returned to Brazil. By 2014, the Brazilian community in the country had decreased to 177,953 people. On the other hand, in 2023, the Brazilian community in Japan grew again, totaling 211,840 people. In 2018, there was a new amendment to the Japanese immigration law, allowing descendants of Japanese born abroad up to the fourth generation (great-grandchildren) to work in Japan. However, for great-grandchildren, the law established stricter requirements, including an age limit and proof of Japanese language proficiency. As a result, few visas were issued: the Japanese government expected to grant 4,000 visas annually, but only 43 applications were approved in the first year of the new legislation, 17 of them to Brazilians. In 2022, Brazilians formed the fourth-largest community of foreign workers residing in Japan, after the Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos. In 2023, the Brazilian community in Japan was the fifth-largest Brazilian community outside Brazil, surpassed only by the communities in the United States, Portugal, Paraguay, and the United Kingdom. The children of Brazilians encounter difficulties in Japanese schools. Thousands of Brazilian children are out of school in Japan. In 2005, there were an estimated 302,000 Brazilian nationals in Japan, of whom 25,000 also hold Japanese citizenship. == 100th anniversary ==

In 2008, many celebrations took place in Japan and Brazil to remember the centenary of Japanese immigration. Then-Prince Naruhito of Japan arrived in Brazil on June 17 to participate in the celebrations. He visited Brasília, São Paulo, Paraná, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Throughout his stay in Brazil, the Prince was received by a crowd of Japanese immigrants and their descendants. He broke the protocol of the Japanese Monarchy, which prohibits physical contact with people, and greeted the Brazilian people. The Prince spoke to 50,000 people during the São Paulo sambódromo and 75,000 in Paraná. He also visited the University of São Paulo, where people of Japanese descent make up 14% of the 80,000 students. Naruhito gave a speech that concluded with a thank you in Portuguese. == Media ==

In São Paulo there are two Japanese publications, the São Paulo Shimbun and the Nikkey Shimbun. The former was established in 1946 and the latter was established in 1998. The latter has a Portuguese edition, the , and both publications have Portuguese websites. The , established in 1947, and the , established in 1949, are the predecessors of the Nikkey Shimbun. The Nambei, published in 1916, was Brazil's first Japanese newspaper. In 1933 90% of East Asian-origin Brazilians read Japanese publications, including 20 periodicals, 15 magazines, and five newspapers. The increase of the number of publications was due to Japanese immigration to Brazil. The government banned publication of Japanese newspapers during World War II. Tatiane Matheus of stated that in the pre-World War II period the Nippak Shimbun, established in 1916; the , established in 1917; and two newspapers established in 1932, the and the , were the most influential Japanese newspapers. All were published in São Paulo. == Education ==

Japanese international day schools in Brazil include the Escola Japonesa de São Paulo ("São Paulo Japanese School"), the Escola Japonesa do Rio de Janeiro in the Cosme Velho neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, and the Escola Japonesa de Manaus. The Escola Japonesa de Belo Horizonte (ベロ・オリゾンテ日本人学校), and Japanese schools in Belém and Vitória previously existed; all three closed, and their certifications by the Japanese education ministry (MEXT) were revoked on March 29, 2002 (Heisei 14). There are also supplementary schools teaching the Japanese language and culture. As of 2003, in southeast and south regions of the country there hundreds of Japanese supplementary schools. The Japan Foundation in São Paulo's coordinator of projects in 2003 stated that São Paulo State has about 500 supplementary schools. Around 33% of the Japanese supplementary schools in southeastern Brazil are in the city of São Paulo. As of 2003 almost all of the directors of the São Paulo schools were women. MEXT recognizes one part-time Japanese school (hoshu jugyo ko or hoshuko), the Escola Suplementar Japonesa de Curitiba in Curitiba. MEXT-approved hoshukos in Porto Alegre and Salvador have closed. History of education The Taisho School, Brazil's first Japanese language school, opened in 1915 in São Paulo. In some areas full-time Japanese schools opened because no local schools existed in the vicinity of the Japanese settlements. In 1932 over 10,000 Nikkei Brazilian children attended almost 200 Japanese supplementary schools in São Paulo. By 1938 Brazil had a total of 600 Japanese schools. == See also ==