The earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants settled in
Mexico in 1897. Today, the four largest populations of Japanese and descendants of Japanese immigrants live in
Brazil, the
United States,
Canada and
Peru. The
Pan American Nikkei Association (PANA) includes
Argentina,
Bolivia,
Brazil,
Chile,
Colombia,
Mexico,
Paraguay,
Peru,
Uruguay, the
United States and
Canada.
Yonsei is a term used in geographic areas outside Japan to specify the child of at least one
Sansei (third generation) parent, who is the child of at least one
Nisei (second generation), who is the child of at least one
Issei parent. An Issei is a
Japanese person who emigrated from Japan. Typically, if a person is
Yonsei, more than one of his or her great-grandparents were born in Japan.
Brazilian Yonsei Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside
Japan, numbering an estimate of more than 1.5 million (including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity). The
Yonsei Japanese Brazilians are a statistically significant component of that ethnic minority in that
South American nation, comprising 12.95% of the Japanese Brazilian population in 1987.
American Yonsei There are about 1.2 million people with Japanese ancestors in the
United States. The term
Yonsei Japanese American refers generally to
Yonsei citizens of the United States, but the term's usage is flexible—describing both
emigrant and
immigrant experiences. Most of the interned
Japanese-Peruvian Nisei who were deported from Peru during World War II became naturalized American citizens; but they considered their naturalized children as
Sansei, meaning three generations away from the emigrants who had sailed to South America at the turn of the century. From this perspective, the sons and daughters of these formerly stateless refugees would be
Yonsei, even as offspring of parents who would be otherwise categorized as
Issei or "first generation" immigrants would also be called
Nisei. While the Japanese Americans were the largest ethnic group in Hawai'i for more than sixty years (1900–1960), their numbers have decreased since then. The Hawaiian
Yonsei don't have to be actively involved in the creation of their group ethnic identity and they tend to dichotomize their American and Japanese heritage. As of 2008, the U.S.
yonsei generation had been the subject of relatively few academic studies. Notable among the literature to date on
yonsei is Carrie Takahata's 2002 poem "Making Yonsei", in which she compares and contrasts the
yonsei generation with previous Hawaiian Japanese generations. Due to a lack of obvious struggles or difficulties faced by previous generations of Japanese-Americans, the
yonsei are sometimes called the "spoiled generation". The
yonsei generation in Hawai'i can be compared to white Americans in the continental U.S. The
yonsei have an equal, if not higher, educational, economic and political status as their continental white counterparts, and also have a low immigration rate, as Japanese immigration has declined since 1965. Also, intermarriage with non-Japanese became common in the Japanese American community in the 1960s. Intermarriage among Japanese Americans was at approximately 50% by the 1970s, and at 70% in the 1990s. According to a 2006 study of
yonsei women in Hawai'i, this generation of Japanese-Americans tends to assert their ethnicity in such "symbolic" ways as the celebration of holidays and ceremonies associated with Japan, eating ethnic foods, and the use of Japanese middle-names. The study noted that the
yonsei generation considered its ethnicity to be less important than did previous generations of Japanese-Americans. Cheryl Lynn Sullivan, an ethnic research who specializes in the Japanese-American community of California, wrote, "It is common in the Japanese American community not to consider yonsei Japanese American -- they are 'just plain Americans.' This is especially true of children who are the offspring of Japanese American-Euro-American marriages." Different organizations were created within the Japanese American community in order for the children of these Japanese American families to have a place where they could partake in different extracurricular activities, such as basketball, golf, baseball, etc. One such organization was the Yonsei Basketball Association, which was created in 1993 by Frank Kiyomura. Its mission statement is, "Our program was founded with a goal of providing a cultural exchange program for Fourth Generation Japanese-American youth from Southern California. We want to provide an opportunity for all participants to experience their heritage and cultural roots. In addition, we hope to provide a goodwill exchange of ideas and cultures by living with local Japanese families." Every year they give out scholarships to selected children from the Japanese American community and assemble both a boys' and girls' team together to send and play in a tournament in Japan.
Canadian Yonsei Within Japanese-Canadian communities across Canada, distinct generational subgroups developed, each with different sociocultural referents, generational identity, and wartime experiences.
Peruvian Yonsei Among the approximately 80,000 Peruvians of Japanese descent, the
Yonsei Japanese Peruvians are an expanding element. == Cultural profile ==