Japanese Peruvians

Japanese Peruvians
Total population
22,534 by self-reported ancestry according to the Peruvian National Census (2017).[1] 200,000 have been estimated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (2023)[2]
Regions with significant populations
Lima, Trujillo, Huancayo, Chiclayo
Languages
Spanish • Japanese
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholicism,
Buddhism, Shintoism[3]
Related ethnic groups
Chinese Peruvians, Japanese Americans, Japanese Canadians, Japanese Brazilians, Asian Latinos
A poster used in Japan to attract immigrants to Peru and Brazil. It reads: "Join your Family, Let's Go to South America."
Arrival of the Sakura Maru to Peru with the first 790 new immigrants, 1899

Japanese Peruvians (Spanish: peruano-japonés or nipo-peruano; Japanese: 日系ペルー人, Nikkei Perūjin) are Peruvian citizens of Japanese origin or ancestry.

Peru has the second largest ethnic Japanese population in South America after Brazil. This community has made a significant cultural impact on the country,[4] and as of the 2017 Census in Peru, 22,534 people or 0.2% of the Peruvian population self reported themselves as having Nikkei or Japanese ancestry,[5] though the Japanese government estimates that at least 200,000 Peruvians have some degree of Japanese ancestry.[2]

Peru was the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with Japan,[6] in June 1873.[7] Peru was also the first Latin American country to accept Japanese immigration.[6] The Sakura Maru carried Japanese families from Yokohama to Peru and arrived on April 3, 1899, at the Peruvian port city of Callao.[8] This group of 790 Japanese became the first of several waves of emigrants who made new lives for themselves in Peru, some nine years before emigration to Brazil began.[7]

Most immigrants arrived from Okinawa, Gifu, Hiroshima, Kanagawa and Osaka prefectures. Many arrived as farmers or to work in the fields but, after their contracts were completed, settled in the cities.[9] In the period before World War II, the Japanese community in Peru was largely run by issei immigrants born in Japan. "Those of the second generation [the nisei] were almost inevitably excluded from community decision-making."[10]

Peru and Japan celebrate the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties (2013).
Embassy of Peru in Japan
Embassy of Japan in Peru
  1. ^ "Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico" (PDF). Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática. p. 214.
  2. ^ a b "Japan-Peru Relations (Basic Data)". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  3. ^ Masterson, Daniel et al. (2004). The Japanese in Latin America: The Asian American Experience, p. 237., p. 237, at Google Books
  4. ^ Takenaka, Ayumi. “The Japanese in Peru: History of Immigration, Settlement, and Racialization.” Latin American Perspectives 31, no. 3, 2004, pp. 77–98
  5. ^ "Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico" (PDF). Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática. p. 214.
  6. ^ a b Palm, Hugo (March 12, 2008). "Desafíos que nos acercan – El capitán de navío de la Marina Peruana Arturo García y García llegó al puerto de Yokohama hace 135 ańos, en febrero de 1873" [Challenges that bring us closer – Peruvian Navy captain Arturo García y García arrived at Yokohama port 135 years ago, in February, 1873] (in Spanish). Lima, Peru: universia.edu.pe. Archived from the original on April 15, 2009.
  7. ^ a b Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Japan: Japan–Peru relations (in Japanese)
  8. ^ "First Emigration Ship to Peru: Sakura Maru," Archived 2005-11-05 at the Wayback Machine Seascope (NYK newsletter). No. 157, July 2000.
  9. ^ Irie, Toraji. "History of the Japanese Migration to Peru," Hispanic American Historical Review. 31:3, 437–452 (August–November 1951); 31:4, 648–664 (no. 4).
  10. ^ Higashide, Seiichi. (2000). Adios to Tears, p. 218., p. 218, at Google Books