The Impact of Japanese Culture on Brazilian Academic Studies and Beyond

Japanese immigration to Brazil began in 1908 with the arrival of the Kasato-maru at the port of Santos in São Paulo. By the late 1930s, Japanese Brazilians were divided between early pioneers (who arrived before 1925) and the nearly 150,000 immigrants who came in the following years with support from the Japanese government. These exchanges fostered the first research initiatives on Japanese culture, particularly between the 1940s and 1950s, when professors and journalists became interested in analyzing immigration, literature, and language. This article offers a brief overview of these studies, emphasizing their growing influence after the year 2000—especially in the artistic and political spheres of research.