Summary

What does return mean to different generations of transnational migrants between Brazil and Japan, and how does it help us understand return in other contexts around the world? Over 20 years have passed since Japan first turned to people of Japanese descent as a source of foreign labour. A number of these early Nikkei migrants – most of them Brazilian – spoke of their decision to work in Japan not only in economic terms, but also as a form of return to their ethnic homeland. As the population of Nikkei-Brazilian migrants continued to increase, many of them brought families to Japan, raising their children partially or even entirely outside their country of birth. While some Nikkei-Brazilians speak of returning to Brazil, others seek to settle permanently with their families in Japan, viewing themselves no longer as temporary workers but as long-term members of Japanese society. As a result of the 2008 global economic crisis, however, the number of Brazilians in Japan decreased significantly, and many Nikkei migrants struggled to find work and a sense of home upon their return to Brazil. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2009 and 2010, this chapter aims to demonstrate the extent to which, for many Nikkei-Brazilians living in Japan, the desire to be global, and globally mobile – rather than either settled or temporary – shapes their decisions and day-to-day practices, whether or not they do in fact return to Brazil. Thus, just as the distinction between immigrants and migrants is problematic, so too are the conceptual uses and limitations of the idea of return in a transnational context.

Introduction

Brazilians of Japanese descent, also referred to as Nikkei-Brazilians, are markedly entwined in Japan's social fabric, and have been for over two decades now. As a result of reforms to immigration policy in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan witnessed a sharp increase in the number of Nikkei- South Americans, particularly Brazilians, registered as foreign residents. In the ten-year span between 1986 and 1996, for example, the number of Nikkei-Brazilians living in Japan leapt from about 2,000 to 190,000 people. At their peak in 2007, Brazilians in Japan exceeded 300,000.