Attracted to Japan – The Pull into Japan Job shortages throughout Japan in the early 1900s led many of its native-born citizens to seek shelter elsewhere, with a surprisingly popular destination for these men and women being Brazil. Clearly the geographic difference alone is enough to raise one’s eyebrows, let alone the cultural differences and language barrier. Leaving one’s home and family to travel half way around the world to a country that speaks a different language is a challenge many would be unwillingly to face, but the motivating factors drawing the Japanese to South America were too great to pass up. In more recent history, changes in Japan’s economy and an increasing availability of jobs there has been causing a reversal of this initial migration, proving especially appealing to the second and third generations. I am focusing on this reverse migration, and the push-pull theory of human migration. Building on previous studies (Koichi Mori – 1992, Naoto Higuchi - 2003, 2005) analyzing the aspects of the original migration to Brazil and the second migration back to Japan, I argue that this migration was due to push-pull factors such as the increasing growth in the Japanese economy, an abundance of higher-paying jobs for Japanese-Brazilians to fulfill and a presented opportunity to return to their homeland. This paper will analyze the factors involved in the migrations occurring from the 1980s to the late 90s. The strongest pull factor presented in this paper is the actions of recruiting agencies attracting the Japanese in Brazil to work in Japan, offering much higher wages and the opportunity for a better standard of living. A push factor from Brazil came in with the economy’s inability to compete with the higher pay rate and abundance of Japan’s job openings, Japan’s economic boom outweighing Brazil’s economic situation. Another pull factor was change in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act that established new opportunities to Japanese-Brazilians and their descendants. In the early 1980s, some Japanese-Brazilians who migrated back to Japan believed their return to Japan would be seen as a sign of failing in Brazil, but they returned in spite of this possible opposition. The numbers of returning immigrants were much smaller in the earlier years for this reason, but changing economic factors later changed that (Table 1: Higuchi, 2005). The majority of the returning Japanese were first generation immigrants, these individuals were still seen as Japanese nationals unlike second and third generation Japanese-Brazilians (Higuchi, 2005). While the worry of shame was present, they were still welcomed back as citizens, a welcome that later immigrants found to be slightly less warm. The strongest pull factor in these individuals was the lack of friends and family in Brazil, with the return to their home in Japan more appealing than staying in Brazil to labor at whatever work they could find. Another pull factor was the recruitment of individuals by Japanese-Brazilians to work for Japanese companies. Perhaps the strongest pull factor drawing Japanese-Brazilians back to Japan was the recruiting agencies. The agencies that opened before 1984 were basically travel agencies, performing tasks like booking flights and finding travel accommodations, even going so far as to loan money to those living in Brazil to make traveling back to Japan possible, even if it was for just a temporary stay (Mori, 1992). This loaning system is also a pull factor, making it easier to travel to Japan even if one did not have the money up front; the opportunity was still feasible if one only had to take some money on loan. These agencies were established before the revision of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act in 1990 (mentioned later), further demonstrating the strong pull factors at work in Japan. In 1985, the first job advertisements caused a much more noticeable shift in the migration pattern; the pull from Japan began to overpower that coming from Brazil (Higuchi, 2005). The reason that Japanese citizens left their homes was because of the lack of. This situation had now reversed itself. While Brazil still presented opportunities, Japan’s economy was on the rise and there were an increasing number of jobs in Japan that the work force simply could not fill. Japanese companies looking for new sources of labor had found that next best thing was to hiring native Japanese citizens, hiring the descendants of the Japanese who had immigrated to Brazil for the exact same reasons. While the availability of jobs in Japan in the past had been the motivating factor pushing Japanese men and women to migrate to Brazil, Japan was now experiencing an economic boom, and a shortage of labor to go along with it (Higuchi, 2005). Japanese recruiters posted job listings in the towns in Brazil that the Japanese immigrants occupied, which was the perfect target audience. The recruiter’s actions did as intended and attracted Japanese-Brazilians back to Japan. The Liberdade district, also known as “JapanTown,” in central São Paulo, had many job listings, due to the majority of the residents being Japanese (Higuchi, 2005; Naoto Higuchi, 2003, Number 12). Recruiters acted as a strong pull factor, providing access to these better opportunities for the Japanese-Brazilians, and benefiting Japan who needed laborers to fill it’s many open positions. Recruiters quickly increased their job advertisements by 1988, increasing the number of job advertisements to more than one thousand in last six months of 1990 (Figure II – Provided by Higuchi, 2005). There was a jump in job advertisements from 1988 from around 118 advertisements to around 350 advertisements (Figure II – Provided by Higuchi, 2005). The time this great increase of advertisements occurred can be seen in Table 1 where the number of individuals entering Japan increased tremendously. The majority of these recruiters were first generation immigrants themselves, who had previously returned to Japan and were asked by Japanese companies to bring more Japanese-Brazilians to Japan for work (Higuchi, 2005). These recruiters could connect with other Japanese people in Brazil, building a bond and offering services to get them to Japan. Japanese-Brazilians used these recruiting agencies to find them jobs when they landed in Japan so they could begin work promptly. Job opportunities such as work at the Toyota factory in Toyota City or at the Sony factory in Toyohashi city were promised by recruiters (Higuchi, 2005). Japanese-Brazilians in Japan were able to find high paying jobs at large factories in car and electronic industries with help from recruiters (Higuchi, 2005). Recruitment agencies were the center of the pull to Japan; they knew where to find jobs for the migrants, where to get plane tickets, assisted them with finding housing and were the true mediators between the two countries (Naoto Higuchi, 2003, Number 12). From a survey by Higuchi in Table 11, many of the individuals used travel agencies to get to Japan, with loans from these agencies greatly aiding many of these same individuals (Higuchi, 2005). There were 130 recruiting agencies in 1990, exhibiting great demand for labor in Japan (Naoto Higuchi, 2003, Number 12). Brokers were people who helped get the Japanese-Brazilians jobs in Japan and buy air tickets from travel agencies and worked with recruiters to find alternate jobs for migrants (Higuchi, 2005). The pull factor from recruiters was made stronger due to a developing push factor in Brazil, with the inflation rate exceeding 100% in the 1980s, jumping up to 682% in 1988 and later reaching an astonishing 1,769% in 1989 (Higuchi, 2005). The inflation rate in Brazil was what really began pushing people out to Japan, combined with the lure of available jobs in Japan. The more obvious push factors of Brazil – it being a foreign world to the incoming Japanese, being so far away from their home and family, language barriers, cultural differences, for the Japanese, these adversities were not enough at first to prevent immigration, they were overpowered by the appeal of jobs, but once Japan’s economy righted itself it made the most sense to return home. The Plaza Accord made the exchange rate in favor the Japanese Yen and German Mark, the yen now worth double the value compared to the US dollar (Higuchi, 2005). The Plaza Accord increased the appeal of migration to Japanese-Brazilians for better opportunities and the possibility of a higher living standard. In the 1990s companies hired new labor due to labor shortages as seen in Table 6, combined with the economic status of Brazil at the time, giving the Japanese companies the advantage in receiving new labor. Japanese companies were suffering from labor shortages, which led to debate on whether a change in policy should be made to allow migrant workers to enter Japan (Higuchi, 2005). The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (ICRRA) brought a huge increase of Japanese-Brazilians migrating into Japan (Higuchi, 2005). The changes to the ICRRA opened doors for the nikkeijin, Japanese descendants born and living abroad (Takeyuki, 2004). Japan created three legal categories for current migrants in Japan; residence, “trainee”, and “long-term resident” (Higuchi, 2005). Japan was pulling Japanese-Brazilians by creation of these new legal groups of which individuals would be part of; certain groups were allowed special work privileges or given restrictions. The status of residence brought in more skilled individuals who could work in skilled industries. The “company trainee” status gave unskilled individuals one year to work and could be extended up to three years (Higuchi, 2005; Justice, 2000). The status of “long-term resident” this allowed individuals unlimited number of times to renew their visas (Higuchi, 2005). The “long-term resident” is special and the status allowed individuals to work in any industry, unlike the “company trainee” who is at the status of a student or a mere visitor as distinguished in Table 9 (Higuchi, 2005; Morita & Sassen, 1994). This revision allowed students of post-secondary schools such as language and vocational schools to work, however they were only able to work a few hours a week, university students were excluded from this group (Morita & Sassen, 1994). My analysis of the push-pull theory with Japanese-Brazilian migration was brought forth by previous studies (Koichi Mori – 1992, Naoto Higuchi - 2003, 2005). The research completed led to the conclusion that the most powerful push-pull factor was from the recruitment agencies giving an attractive opportunity to Japanese-Brazilians. The opportunity to earn a higher wage and a better standard of living by moving back to Japan was too attractive for those living in Brazil to pass it up. Migrating back to Japan proved beneficial not only for the people themselves but for the Japanese companies searching desperately for workers to fill their available jobs, as well as the country's economy as a whole.
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