Today there are 206,000 Brazilians in Japan, according to the most recent data from the Ministry of Justice. Almost 60% have a permanent residency visa, which indicates a tendency to stay.
About 43,000 of the Brazilians living in Japan are children and young people up to 18 years old. Among them, 4,000 are enrolled in Brazilian colleges, private institutions that were designed to welcome children of immigrants in the late 1990s.
Mastery of the language is considered the main obstacle to the integration of immigrants into Japanese society – and there are those who still live in a type of "Brazilian bubble" in Japan. The inability to communicate can lead to a diagnosis of autism or ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder).
With no prospect of entering a university, investing in a professional qualification or entrepreneurship, there are young Brazilians looking for jobs as workers, as their parents did.
Brazilian consulates and NGOs have been holding educational and cultural events to raise awareness of the importance of education and especially literacy in the Japanese language.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon