HomeFrom Japan to Brazil and Vice-versa: Historical and Aesthetic Perspectives of a Diasporic Cinema

From Japan to Brazil and Vice-versa: Historical and Aesthetic Perspectives of a Diasporic Cinema

Du Japon au Brésil et vice-versa : perspectives historiques et esthétiques d’un cinéma diasporique

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Published on Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Abstract

Français English

In 2024, the 77th Festival of Cannes' short film competition selected Amarela (2024),a film by Japanese-Brazilian director André Hayato Saito, which focuses on the experiencesof Japanese-Brazilians. This event reflects a growing interest in a diverse, transnational, andmultilingual filmography on the subject of the Japanese diaspora, particularly theJapanese-Brazilians, who are the largest group affected by return migration (or “detourmigration” (Perroud, 2007)) to Japan. This Young Researchers Colloquium aims atvisualizing and discussing that film corpus and its aesthetic, socio-historical andmethodological issues.

Announcement

Français English

ENS Lyon (France) & online, June 24th and 25th, 2025

Argument

In 2024, the 77th Festival of Cannes' short film competition selected Amarela (2024), a film by Japanese-Brazilian director André Hayato Saito, which focuses on the experiences of Japanese-Brazilians. This event reflects a growing interest in a diverse, transnational, and multilingual filmography on the subject of the Japanese diaspora, particularly the Japanese-Brazilians, who are the largest group affected by return migration (or “detour migration” (Perroud, 2007)) to Japan. This Young Researchers Colloquium aims at visualizing and discussing that film corpus and its aesthetic, socio-historical and methodological issues.

The first massive immigration of Japanese populations to Brazil occurred in 1908, to replace European laborers at the coffee plantations of São Paulo (Nishida, 2017). Aboard the Kasato Maru, 781 migrants left Kobe’s harbor in direction of Santos, located in the state of São Paulo, following previous migrations to Hawaii (1868), the United States (1880), and Peru (1899) (Han, 2017). Despite restrictions by the Brazilian government in the 1930s, these “nikkeis” (in Brazilian) or “nikkeijin” (in Japanese), meaning Japanese descendants born and living abroad, formed a significant community of around 2 million people by the 2020s. Today, this is the largest community of Japanese descent in the world.

In the 1980s, a reverse form of migration of Japanese-Brazilians to Japan began as Brazil faced an economic crisis. The Japanese authorities encouraged the return of nikkeis/nikkeijin by preferentially giving them “long-term resident” visas (teijūsha) (Cherrier, 2024), to meet the country's demand for low-cost labor (De Carvalho, 2003). Initially, migrants planned to stay only for a short time in Japan, which is why the Japanese term dekasegi—meaning short-term migrant workers—was used to describe them. However, their difficult reintegration upon returning to Brazil and economic issues led many of them to extend their stays in Japan, in a “vicious migration cycle” (Yamanaka, 2000). Most of them eventually settled permanently in Japan (Tsuda, 1999). If Japanese-Brazilians were the third-largest foreign community in Japan by the 2000s, they now form the fifth-largest foreign community in Japan at 204,879 people, after Chinese people (716,606), Vietnamese (432,934), Koreans (409,855) and Filipinos (276,615) (Cherrier, 2024). Japanese-Brazilians are also one of the country's main ethnic minorities, alongside Japanese-Koreans, Burakumin, Ainu, and Okinawans (Tsuda, 1999).

The Japanese diasporas, including those from Brazil, and associated issues (immigration, the making of diasporas, the affirmation of a cultural identity, and social integration) have been widely studied in social sciences since the 1990s, mainly in English, Japanese, Portuguese and French (see for example works from Jeffrey Lesser, Takeyuki Tsuda, Daniela de Carvalho and Pauline Cherrier).

The history of Japanese immigration is deeply intertwined with cinema. Indeed, the arrival of the first Japanese migrants coincided with the emergence of filmmaking in Brazil. In 1908, just a few months after the Kasato Maru docked, the State of São Paulo commissioned the production of a silent short film titled Japoneses apanhando café nas fazendas paulistas. Unfortunately, no copies of this film have been found. From the 1920s onward, non-fiction short films documenting the experiences of nikkeis/nikkeijin in Brazil became increasingly common. Hikoma Udihara, an amateur filmmaker, stands out as one of the most notable figures of this movement, having created nearly 85 short films between 1927 and 1959. As the practice of filmmaking became more established, the diffusion of films —mainly Japanese productions—increased within the Japanese-Brazilian community. In this context, traveling cinemas played a significant role, particularly in rural areas, by allowing Japanese immigrants to watch films. Alexandre Kishimoto (2013) highlighted the key role played by four movie theaters in the Liberdade district of São Paulo during the 1950s and 1960s. These theaters not only facilitated the dissemination of Japanese cinema within the Japanese-Brazilian community but also attracted Brazilian audiences with no Japanese heritage.

Afterwards, two major university-trained Japanese-Brazilian filmmakers constituted the historical foundation of Japanese-Brazilian diasporic cinema: Olga Futemma, former director of the Cinemateca Brazileira, short film director, and producer of several films, and Tizuka Yamasaki, director and screenwriter. Among other films, Yamasaki directed Gaijin – Caminhos da Liberdade in 1980, a commercial and critical success (winning awards at Cannes and Gramado), which is considered the first fiction film focused on the Japanese-Brazilian community and which helped popularize the history of Japanese migration in Brazil. Concerning animated films, the Japanese-Brazilian community also played a pioneer role in Brazil: Piconzé (1972), one of the first Brazilian animated feature films in color, was directed by Ypê Nakashima, a Japanese artist who immigrated to São Paulo in 1956 and surrounded himself with around 30 animators from the Japanese community to make the film.

Today, several contemporary filmmakers from Japan, Brazil, and the Japanese-Brazilian community have explored diasporic issues. Their films have been appraised at festivals: from the fiction Saudade (2011) by Tomita Katsuya to the documentary Okinawa Santos (2020) by Yōju Matsubayashi, along with films by Paulo Pastorelo (Tokiori - Dobras do Tempo, 2011), Marcos Yoshi (Bem-vindos de Novo, 2021), Vicente Amorim (Corações Sujos, 2011), Nanako Kurihara (A Grandpa from Brazil, 2008), Tsumura Kimihiro and Mayu Nakamura (Lonely Swallows, 2012). Moreover, in 2008, for the centenary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants, a major retrospective of Japanese-Brazilian films was held in Brazil, followed by an international symposium at the Universities of São Paulo and Osaka. This event led to the identification and establishment of a nikkei Brazilian film archive, although the collection remains incomplete due to difficulties in getting hold of part of the films and their poor preservation.

Over the past 15 years, several studies on films addressing Japanese-Brazilian diaspora issues have been published in Portuguese (since the centenary) and Japanese (since the 2010s). However, these films remain under-explored by English- and French-speaking scholars. Two recent publications in English are worth noting: Ignacio López-Calvo's book on Japanese-Brazilian literature and films (López-Calvo, 2019) and Emy Takada's thesis on Tizuka Yamasaki (Takada, 2021).

As these films are gradually gaining attention from curators and researchers, it seemed important to us to invite international scholars to share their expertise and to engage in bilingual (English-French) discussions during this colloquium.

Proposals are expected to be diverse in terms of methodologies and objects of study. They are expected to discuss, through cinema and its ethical and sociopolitical stakes, these diasporic phenomena and their place in societies and national histories. Topics of interest may include (but are not limited to):

  • The aesthetics of films addressing Japanese-Brazilian diasporic issues, particularly in relation to discourses on identity, memory, and intimacy (one might also question the aesthetic difference between fictions and documentaries);
  • The circulation of film aesthetics between Japan and Brazil through the diasporic network;
  • The contexts and challenges of production and distribution of these films, as well as the role of Japanese-Brazilian filmmakers and technicians within cinematic production and distribution networks;
  • Japanese-Brazilian diaspora issues in audiovisual media and museum installations.

Submission details

Individual paper proposals, in  English or in French, are to be sent to lucie.rydzek@univ-lorraine.fr, romane.carriere@ens-lyon.fr and emmanuel.dayre@ens.fr. They must comprise:

  • Name, firstname, affiliation, email address, presentation on-site or online
  • Title
  • Abstract (up to 3000 characters including spaces)
  • Bio-bibliography (up to 500 characters including spaces)
  • Presenters will have 20 minutes to present their paper in English or in French, followed by 10 minutes of questions. All visuals need to be in English.

The colloquium will be hosted at the Ecole Normale Supérieure Lyon, France. Online presentations will be possible for those who can not join in-site, although we encourage on-site presentations. The colloquium may lead to the publication of a shared book.

Calendar

  • Submission deadline: March 10th, 2025 (23:59, UTC+1)

  • Committee decision: by April 2025
  • Colloquium dates: June 24th and 25th, 2025

The colloquium is supported by the Lyon Institute of East Asian Studies (IAO, https://iao.cnrs.fr/, Lyon), the Comparative Studies and Research Center on Creative Arts (CERCC, http://cercc.ens-lyon.fr/spip.php?rubrique36, Lyon) and the Research Center on Expertise, Arts and Transitions (CREAT, https://creat.univ-lorraine.fr/, Metz).

Scientific committee

  • Pauline CHERRIER (University of Aix-Marseille, IrAsia/CEJ-INALCO)
  • Kevin J. MCKIERNAN (University of Minnesota Twin Cities)
  • Alberto DA SILVA (Sorbonne Université, CRIMIC)
  • Élise DOMENACH (Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière, IAO)
  • Regiane ISHII (Universidade de São Paulo, ECA)
  • Lúcia RAMOS MONTEIRO (Universidade Federal Fluminense, PPG-Cine)

Organizing committee

  • Romane CARRIÈRE (ENS Lyon, CERCC)
  • Lucie RYDZEK (University of Lorraine, CREAT/IAO)
  • Emmanuel DAYRE (ENS Lyon, IAO)

Indicative filmography

Amarela (2024, 15’), Andre Hayato Saito

Bem-vindos de Novo (2021, 105’), Marcos Yoshi

Aos cuidados dela (2020, 25’), Marcos Yoshi

Okinawa Santos (2020, 90’), Yōju Matsubayashi

Tokiori - Dobras do Tempo (2013, 110’), Paulo Pastorelo

Goldfish GoHome (2012, 98’), Shōhei Shiozaki

Saudade (2011, 167’), Tomita Katsuya

Dirty Hearts / Corações Sujos (2011, 90’), Vicente Amorim

Lonely Swallows: Living as Children of Immigrant Workers / Kodoku na Tsubame-tachi: Dekasegi no Kodomo ni Umarete (2011, 88’), Tsumura Kimihiro et Mayu Nakamura

Furusato 2009 (2009, 50’), Tomita Katsuya

Grandpa from Brazil / Burajiru kara kita ojiichan (2008, 60’), Nanako Kurihara

Permanência (2006, 70’), Helios Ishii

Gaijin: Ama-me Como Sou (2005, 131’), Tizuka Yamasaki

Cartas (2004) , Helios Ishii

The City of Lost Souls (2000, 103’), Takashi Miike

Chá Verde e Arroz (1989, 11’), Olga Futemma

Retratos de Hideko (1981, 10’), Olga Futemma

Gaijin: Roads to Freedom / Gaijin: Os Caminhos da Liberdade (1980, 112’), Tizuka Yamasaki

Piconzé (1972, 80’), Ypê Nakashima

Indicative bibliography

CAHEN Michel, “Mónica Raísa SCHPUN (eds.), 1908-2008. The centenary of Japanese immigration to Brazil. Assessments time” (Mónica Raísa SCHPUN (éd.), 1908-2008. Le centenaire de l’immigration japonaise au Brésil. L’heure des bilans), Lusotopie, XVI(2), IDEAS - UMR 7307, 1st June 2009, p. 289-297.

CHERRIER Pauline, “The mediatic treatment of Brazilian workers in Japan during the economic crisis of 2009” (Le traitement médiatique des travailleurs brésiliens du Japon durant la crise économique de 2009), Ebisu, n°46, 2009, p. 39-71.

CHERRIER Pauline, “1990-2020 : 30 years of Brazilian immigration to Japan. Assessment and Perspectives” (1990-2020 : 30 ans d’immigration brésilienne au Japon. Bilan et perspectives), in Cherrier Pauline, Kim Hui-yeon, Konuma Isabelle (eds.), Migrants from and to Asia (Migrants d’Asie, migrants en Asie), Marseille, Terra HN éditions, 2024.

COSTA João Pedro Corrêa, De decasségui a emigrante, Brasília, Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão, 2007.

CARVALHO Daniela de, “Nikkei communities in Japan”, in Roger Goodman (eds), Global Japan:

the experience of Japan’s new immigrant and overseas communities, London, Routledge Curzon, 2003, p. 195-208.

HAN Yanli, “The screening and the reception of Japanese films in prewar Japanese-Brazilian society” (Senzen no burajiru nikkei shakai ni okeru nihon eiga no jōei to jūyō) », Ekusu: Gengo bunka ron shū, no 10, March 25th, 2017, p. 49-62.

HIRANO Kyōko, “Itakura Fumiaki, Cinema and immigration : Japanese-American film reception and identity (Eiga to imin: zaibei nikkei imin no eiga juyō to aidentiti) (Shin’yōsha, 2016)”, Eizōgaku, no 97, 2017, p. 87-90.

KATSUO Hugo, “A Identidade Nacional em Disputa: memória, estrangeirismo e fronteira em “Gaijin – Caminhos da Liberdade””, in Monica Setuyo Okamoto and José Carvalho Vanzelli (eds.), Nipo-brasileiros: arte, cultura e história, São Paulo, Pimenta Cultural, 2023, p. 87-100.

KODATO Marina, “Women Japanese-Brazilian filmmakers’ expression of cultural identity” (Josei nikkei burajirujin eiga kantoku no karuchuraru aidentiti no hyōsō), The Japan Society for Cinema Studies (JSCS) Newsletter, vol. 69, no 0, July 26th, 2023, p. 19-20.

KISHIMOTO Alexandre, HIKIJI Rose Satiko Gitirana, “Nikkeis no Brasil, dekasseguis no Japão:

identidade e memória em filmes sobre migrações”, Revista USP, São Paulo, Brasil, no. 79, 2008, p. 144–164.

KISHIMOTO Alexandre, Cinema japonês na Liberdade, São Paulo, Estação Liberdade, 2013.

LESSER Jeffrey (eds), Searching for Home Abroad: Japanese Brazilians and Transnationalism, Durham, Duke University Press, 2003.

LÓPEZ-CALVO Ignacio, Japanese Brazilian Saudades, Denver, University Press of Colorado, 2019.

NAKAHARA Alexandre, “Cinema, Memória e Representação da Vida Rural dos Japoneses no Brasil”, in Monica Setuyo Okamoto and José Carvalho Vanzelli (eds.), Nipo-brasileiros: arte, cultura e história, São Paulo, Pimenta Cultural, 2023, p. 70-86.

NISHIDA Mieko, “Japanese Immigration to Brazil”, in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017.

PERROUD Mélanie, “Return migration or detour migration? The diversity of the migration journeys of Brazilians from Japanese descent” (Migration retour ou migration détour ? : Diversité des parcours migratoires des Brésiliens d'ascendance japonaise), Revue européenne des migrations internationales, vol. 23, n°1, 2007, p.49-70.

PRADO Helena, “Nikkei newspapers in Brazil: the invention of a collective identity” (La presse des nikkeis au Brésil : l’invention d’une identité collective), Revue européenne des migrations internationales, vol. 26, no 1, 2010, p. 103-118.

SUZUKI Camila, “Tizuka Yamasaki: diásporas e ecletismo”, in Luiza Lusvarghi & Camila Vieira da Silva (eds), Mulheres atrás das câmeras: as cineastas brasileiras de 1930 a 2018, São Paulo, Estação Liberdade, 2019, p. 295-305.

TAKADA Emy, Shapes of Nikkei Feelings: Tizuka Yamasaki’s Cinema of Emotion in the Millennium Films, PhD Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 2021.

TAKAHASHI Yuri, “Reflection on the documentary Mirikitani’s Cats : War memory of Japanese-Americans (Dokyumentarii eiga “Mirikitani no neko” kara tou: nikkei amerikajin no sensō no kioku)”, Ritsumeikan gengo bunka kenkyū, vol. 28, no 3, January 2017, p. 183-193.

TSUDA Takeyuki, “Transnational Migration and the Nationalization of Ethnic Identity among Japanese Brazilian Return Migrants”, Ethos, vol. 27, no 2, June 1999, p. 145-179.

YAMANAKA Keiko, “I will go home but when? Labor migration and circular diaspora formation by

Japanese Brazilians in Japan”, in Mike Douglass and Glenda Roberts (eds), Japan and Global Migration. Foreign Workers and the Advent of a Multicultural Society, Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Press, p. 123-152.

Places

  • ENS de Lyon
    Lyon, France (69)

Event attendance modalities

Hybrid event (on site and online)


Date(s)

  • Monday, March 10, 2025

Keywords

  • cinéma, migration, nippo-brésilien

Contact(s)

  • Lucie Rydzek
    courriel : lucie [dot] rydzek [at] univ-lorraine [dot] fr
  • Emmanuel Dayre
    courriel : emmanuel [dot] dayre [at] ens [dot] fr

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Romane Carriere
    courriel : romane [dot] carriere [at] ens-lyon [dot] fr

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« From Japan to Brazil and Vice-versa: Historical and Aesthetic Perspectives of a Diasporic Cinema », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/134kb

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