Being beautiful in Japan: Brazilian female migrants’ experiences of racialization in their ancestral homeland

• In Event: Brazilian emigration: what we know and what is new about it -2

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify how Brazilian female migrants in Japan adapt to their particular visibility within society and to examine what possibilities or limitations this visibility brings. In 1990, the Japanese government began issuing renewable 3-year “long-term residence visas” without restrictions on socioeconomic activities of non-citizen children and grandchildren of Japanese emigrants and their family members. This was a move to alleviate Japan’s shortage of unskilled labour, especially in secondary industries. For Japanese-Brazilians, mainly members of the Brazilian middle class, returning to their ancestral homeland was seen as a solution to unemployment problems and wage reduction emanating from the economic crisis and hyperinflation in Brazil at the time. After arriving in Japan, young Brazilian female migrants of Japanese descent learn that being mixed-race carries the potential of valorization in the Japanese print media. Some become fashion models, performing the image of “globalized Japanese” for consumption by mainstream Japanese culture. Their particular form of visibility within the commodification of racialized images is partially shared with other generations of Brazilian women who have begun to cover labour shortages in tertiary industries such as eldercare. What possibilities or limitations does their particular visibility gained through racialization bring? This question will be examined through interviews with Brazilian women who have worked as models or as caregivers and modeling agencies; drawing on research on Japanese fashion magazines; participant observation of modeling courses and beauty pageants of the Brazilian community.

Author

• Tamaki Watarai, Aichi Prefectural University