Chinese now Japan’s largest minority
By Dyske June 3rd, 2008
According to this article, the Chinese are now the largest minority in Japan. Not sure why any Chinese would want to move abroad now. China sounds like the most exciting place to be at the moment. Wouldn’t they miss the opportunity to strike it rich in their own country? Well, perhaps living in Japan is a means to take advantage of the growing economy in China.
It’s also interesting to note that Brazilians are the third largest. I would have never guessed that one.
Does that mean there are now a lot of great Brazilian restaurants in Japan?
Ben says:
June 4th, 2008 at 6:05 pmThere are a lot of Brazillians in Japan now, but most of them are probably Brazilians of Japanese origin. Brazil is an interesting country because it has one of the largest Japanese populations outside of Japan due to large migrations during the WWII time period along with many Eastern Europeans. It also has the largest Black population outside of Africa but that is due to the slave trade in the 1800’s. The Japanese brought a lot of Japanese restaurants to Brazil so it would make since that they would reverse migrate and bring Brazilian food back to Japan.
Celest says:
June 5th, 2008 at 5:41 pmwell, I partially agree that living in Japan is a way to take advantage of growing economy in China. (actually, it is a good point). but the reason for being the largest minority simply might be the large population size in China.
Shimanchu says:
June 15th, 2008 at 8:50 pmWow, I’m actually a return missionary for the LDS church from Japan and yeah, while I was there I met several Chinese people (of course not knowing they were Chinese until they tried speaking very broken Japanese back to us). It was interesting, because they always seemed to be much more interested in learning more about what we had to teach than the Japanese citizens.
Kareem says:
June 18th, 2008 at 6:09 amBen is right on the money.
Rinzai says:
June 19th, 2008 at 8:51 pmI actually happen to be a Brazilian of Japanese descent. Though I don’t live in Japan yet, I plan on doing so in the near-to-mid future. I want to perfect my Japanese language skills before I go also… that helps against discrimination. If you are north-american and white, chances are you’re gonna be treated with much courtesy and respect no matter how much Japanese you know/understand… however if you have an asian face the Japanese pretty much expect you to “conform”.
As for China, I don’t think it’s weird for Chinese people to want to switch China for Japan, after all the governments regime is still pretty opressive, and it’s insanely overpopulated, so I’m guessing you’re not gonna be feeling relaxed very often over there.
L says:
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:40 pmI am a Chinese-American, and have grown up around mainland Chinese immigrants all my life. From what I understand, Chinese immigration abroad stems from a sense of foreign superiority, as well as from the extreme competition within China from its large population. Everyone that can afford it pushes their children abroad to study, or to find work and “get rich.” While the truth of “foreign superiority” to domestic opportunities can probably be debated, Chinese migration to Japan is especially interesting because of the historical, and very much continued, tension between the nations from WWII. It may be the case that Chinese nationals, while holding a grudge against Japanese actions toward their forefathers, cannot be kept away from the glimmering economic potential in Japan today.
tuneee says:
October 25th, 2008 at 3:52 pmBrazil has the highest population of Japanese outside of Japan. Yup, more than the US. A lot of people immigrated to Brazil looking for work after WWII, that’s why.
copykatya says:
December 6th, 2008 at 2:24 pmPerhaps the Chinese recognize something about their big economic boom that the rest of the world doesn’t seem to: A population that gets very old before it gets very rich holds little promise of long-term prosperity.
And by the way, my dear Brazilujin, depending on what part of Japan you’re in, this is total bullshit: ” If you are north-american and white, chances are you’re gonna be treated with much courtesy and respect no matter how much Japanese you know/understand…”
Daniel Takiguchi Ribeiro says:
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:56 amHi,
I’m also a japanese-brazilian. Actually, I’m half brazilian, half Japanese. Last year (2008) Brazil celebrated 100 years of the japanese immigration. The japanese are mostly in the states of São Paulo and Parana. We have a lot of japanese restaurant in São Paulo and there is also a “Japanese Town” and not a China Town like in other countries.
Juan says:
January 27th, 2009 at 9:24 pmOi Daniel
Esteve em SP por trabalho.
Gostei muito do bairro Liberdade.
Abraço
Ed says:
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:45 pmThe booming economy of China is exciting, but one tremendous draw that Japan has is that the average income is so much higher in Japan. A Chinese person living in Japan doing a relatively ordinary job can send lots of money home if he or she works hard and lives very very simply.