Brazilian-Japanese struggle in their ancestors' land (Feature)

By Takehiko Kambayashi Feb 3, 2010, 5:05 GMT

Oizumi, Japan - Carlos Iwata smiles and bows to customers as he rushes around taking orders and cleaning tables at Restaurant Brasil.

The global recession has hit hard in the drab industrial town of Oizumi in central Japan, with many factories laying off workers and some even shutting down.

Iwata was among the many non-Japanese residents - most of them from Latin America - who bore the brunt of the economic meltdown. A Brazilian citizen of Japanese origin, who first came to Japan in 1990 and has lived in Japan on and off for 16 years, Iwata had to shutter his temporary employment agency in late 2008.

'There were no job vacancies. We were driven out of business,' Iwata said in fluent Japanese.

He then took over an acquaintance's restaurant. 'We just celebrated our one-year anniversary,' he said proudly.

Non-Japanese, mostly Brazilians, make up about 16 per cent of the population of 42,000 in Oizumi, 70 kilometres north of Tokyo.

The layoffs and factory closures forced many to look for work in other towns or return to Brazil, said local public official Hiroe Kato.

Amid growing labour shortages, Japan began to grant special work visas 20 years ago to Latin Americans of Japanese descent. By the end of 2008, the number of Brazilians and Peruvians in Japan numbered more than 370,000. But tens of thousands of Brazilians have sence left Japan, community leaders said.

In April 2009, Japan started to encourage them to take government money and go home. The government pays 300,000 yen (3,300 dollars) to a Latin American guest worker and 200,000 yen to a family member for travel expenses on the condition that they never again seek employment in Japan.

An estimated 14,529 Brazilians and 575 Peruvians applied for the repatriation aid programme and have left Japan, said an official at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Debito Arudou, a columnist for the English-language daily Japan Times, called the controversial programme a 'repatriation bribe' and human-rights concern.

'This, more than anything, demonstrated how the agents of the status quo (the bureaucrats) keep public policy xenophobic,' wrote Arudou, himself a US-born naturalized Japanese citizen.

Migration experts say that as Japan faces the intractable issues of an ageing population and low birthrates, it must encourage immigration.

The number of registered foreigners in Japan increased 46.6 per cent, to 2,217,426, in 2008 from 1998. That accounts for 1.74 per cent of the population of 127.5 million. The actual number is probably larger as it does not include naturalized citizens and those who overstay their visas, officials said.

Chinese make up nearly 30 per cent of the total. Koreans make up 26.6 per cent and Brazilians are more than 14 per cent.

In Oizumi, where Brazilian restaurants and video rental stores dwarf Japanese noodle shops and sushi bars, unemployed Latin Americans stop by a local employment office. Only low-paid, part-time jobs are available.

Brazilian workers are additionally hindered by the language barrier as most of them speak little Japanese, despite a decade or more in the country.

The local government offers Japanese language classes, Kato said: 'But once they find a job, most of them stop coming.'

Most foreign residents said they would go back to their home countries once they saved enough money. Those plans for an early departure hinder their willingness to learn Japan's language and customs, locals said. But in most cases foreigners end up staying longer than planned.

Marcos Shimabukuro, who came from Peru 10 years ago, said he was laid off three months ago by a local auto-parts factory. He still lives in Oizumi and works part-time as a cook in a Peruvian restaurant.

Shimabukuro's story is similar to that of many Brazilians and Peruvians in Oizumi. He works long hours to make money for the education of his four children in Peru.

'I miss my children so much,' he said, through an interpreter.

Iwata of Restaurant Brasil said he would not return to Brazil even though his country offers more opportunities now and is to host the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

'Japan is really safe,' Iwata said, recalling that he was mugged 34 times at gunpoint in Brazil.

His son and daughter have married local Japanese and live nearby.

'All of our families also live here. My children's families come every weekend. We now have four grandchildren,' Iwata said with a beaming smile. 'The best thing is that families are together.'