I wanted to explore Brazil’s Japanese and Lebanese sub-cultures. Outside of Lebanon and Japan, Brazil hosts the largest diaspora communities of both these countries in the world.

Let’s start with the Lebanese Community. Many Lebanese came following instability of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the empire fell into decline, sectarian rivalries between ethnic and religious groups were stoked to prevent unified opposition leading to violence and instability within Syria and Lebanon. To escape these uncertainties, many groups migrated to Brazil, specifically Maronites, Melkites, and Eastern Orthodox christians. Brazilian political leaders were much more amenable to Christian immigrants than any other religion and around 150,000 people came starting in the 1870s (Georgetown). During the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) almost 32,000 more Lebanese migrated to Brazil. According to Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this diaspora community has grown to include 12 million people. This is likely a gross overestimation, as that would imply twice as many Lebanese in Brazil as in the country itself, nonetheless, Lebanese have had a profound impact on Brazilian society. Although they constitute between 1-5% of the population, Lebanese Brazilians have very high political representation. Lebanese Brazilians control as much as 10% of the seats in Brazil’s national Congress. Prominent Lebanese Brazilians have also been former presidents (Michel Temer), former governors (Paulo Maluf), and former mayors of São Paulo (Fernando Haddad). Outside of politics, Lebanese migrants have had a profound impact on Brazilian foodways. Sfiha, tabbouleh, and kibbeh have all become Brazilianized to “esfiha,” “tabule,” and “quibe.” Lebanese food is so popular in Brazil that the country’s favorite fast food restaurant is called Habib’s, is represented by a genie, and sells “600 million units of sfiha meat pies a year” (Georgetown). Because of the strong Lebanese influence on Brazilian culture, President Lula has been a vocal critic of Israel’s decision to invade Lebanon and Lula has made an express effort to protect Brazilian interests in the country.

Now on to Japan! “Concerned that European wage laborers were neither economically cheap nor socially servile, entrepreneurs and planters looked to [Asia] as a source from which to recruit new workers” (Meade 107). Allowing non-white workers in was a highly contentious debate in Brazil at the time between entrepreneurs/plantation owners and eugenicists who wanted to improve the whiteness of the population. Brazil started by bringing in Chinese laborers, but Japanese colonists proved a more reliable source. In 1908, the first Japanese migrants, called nikkei, came and by 1961 there were more than 250,000 settled in Brazil (Meade 108). Now an estimated 2 million Japanese descendants live in Brazil. While the group faced heavy discrimination in the early 20th century by the late 20th century, Japanese Brazilians became an accepted part of urban Brazilian life. As Japan’s economy outpaced Brazil’s, the immigration pattern reversed. Xenophobic Japanese policies favored Japanese-descended South Americans as a racially and socially palatable source of cheap labor. “Incentivized by higher wages, more than 300,000 Japanese-Brazilians traveled in a reverse migration back to their ancestral homeland” (National Geographic). They are called Dekasegi and, unfortunately, just as their ancestors were marginalized when they arrived in Brazil, many Japanese Brazilians found themselves marginalized within their ancestral homeland. While this hasn’t stopped immigration, it has created a strong Brazilian identity within Japan (click here to see Brazilian Restaurants in a Japanese City - https://www.google.com/maps/search/nagoya+japan+brazilian+restauran...!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTExMy4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D). In Brazil I can’t wait to try Japanese sushi and in Japan I’m excited to visit a Brazilian churrascaria!

Sources:
Teresa Meade - Brief History of Brazil - https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Brief_History_of_Brazil.html...
From Beirut to Brazil - Georgetown - https://ccas.georgetown.edu/2021/06/08/from-beirut-to-brazil/
Sake or Capirinha - National Geographic - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/brazil-japan-dias...