Japanese descendants in São Paulo. | |
Total population | |
c. 2 million Brazilians of Japanese descent (2019)[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Japan: 208,857 (2019) Japanese Brazilians in Japan[2] 0.2% of Japan's population | |
Languages | |
Portuguese • Japanese | |
Religion | |
Predominantly: Roman Catholicism[3] Minority: Buddhism and Shintoism[4] Japanese new religions Protestantism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Japanese, other nikkei groups (mainly those from Latin America and Japanese Americans), Latin Americans in Japan, Asian Latin Americans |
Japanese Brazilians (Japanese: 日系ブラジル人, Hepburn: Nikkei Burajiru-jin, Portuguese: Nipo-brasileiros, [ˌnipobɾaziˈlejɾus]) are Brazilian citizens who are nationals or naturals of Japanese ancestry or Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Japanese people of Brazilian ancestry.[5]
The first group of Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in 1908.[6] Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. Since the 1980s, a return migration has emerged of Japanese Brazilians to Japan.[7] More recently, a trend of interracial marriage has taken hold among Brazilians of Japanese descent, with the racial intermarriage rate approximated at 50% and increasing.[8]
Number of Japanese nationals residing in Brazil: 50,205 (2018); Number of Japanese descendants: 2 million (estimated)