Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Nikkeijin

The term Nikkeijin refers to Japanese emigrants and their descendants, or “person of Japanese ancestry” in Japanese, although this usually does not include Japanese nationals in Japan. Until the 1990s, this term referred primarily to ethnic Japanese communities abroad, distinguishing between Japanese in Japan and ethnic Japanese outside of Japan. In the early 1990s, however, with the revision of Japan's Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, large numbers of ethnic Japanese from Brazil and other South American countries began migrating to Japan. As a result, the Japanese/Nikkeijin distinction is no longer territorially or geographically definable and has begun to take on new meanings in societies such as the United States and Japan.

Usage in the United States

Nikkei literally means “of Japanese ancestry” in Japanese. Its meaning and connotations are different inside and outside of Japan. In the United States, the term Nikkei is increasingly used interchangeably with, and sometimes in place of, the term Japanese American. This semantic shift is largely due to the limited connotations of the latter. Japanese American has historically referred to pre-World War II immigrants and their descendants, who were predominantly monoracial.

Over the years, however, the population of Japanese Americans has significantly diversified. Now there are also people who trace their family histories to the post-World War II wave of migration. At the same time, the younger generations of Japanese Americans are predominantly of mixed ancestries (i.e., one parent has Japanese ancestry, and one parent does not) and mixed generations (e.g., one parent is Issei, or first generation, and one parent is Sansei, or third generation). Many “Japanese American” community leaders and organizations are identifying as Nikkei in an attempt to acknowledge and reflect this growing diversity. So Nikkei is more inclusive of diversity than Japanese American.

Within the American context, Nikkei is predominantly used as both a noun and an adjective; one rarely hears Nikkeijin in the United States, unless it is referring to ethnic Japanese populations in other countries or to those who have “return migrated” to Japan. In the United States, people tend to use Nikkei in two different ways: either including the original Japanese migrants along with their descendants or referring only to their American-born descendants. If Japanese migrants are included, they are referred to as “Issei”; if they are differentiated from Nikkei, they are referred to as “Japanese.” This slippage is also common with the term Japanese American.

Usage in Japan

Meanwhile, in Japan, Nikkeijin is the more commonly used term. As in the United States, Nikkeijin always refers to the descendants of Japanese migrants, but it may or may not include the original migrants themselves. From a Japanese perspective, those who were born and socialized primarily in Japan, especially if they still have Japanese citizenship, would in most cases be considered “Japanese.” At the same time, however, if these “Japanese” adapted to a different society and developed new communities and world-views, and especially if they gave up their Japanese citizenship, they could also be seen as having become “Nikkeijin.”

The term Nikkeijin is not country-specific: In Japan, it would be similar to saying “the Japanese diaspora.” To be country-specific, one would say either “Brazilian Nikkeijin” or “Nikkei Brazilian.” In Japanese and from a Japanese perspective, Nikkeijin is more commonly used without a country marker, not necessarily referencing people from any particular country. Rather, in Japan, it is more common to define Nikkeijin in contrast to Nihonjin, that is, majority Japanese. In this context, Nikkeijin references those who appear to be Japanese but may not behave like or speak Japanese (because they are the descendants of Japanese emigrants and were raised abroad).

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution