Japanese Argentines or Japanese Argentinians ( es, nipo-argentinos; ja, 日系アルゼンチン人, ''Nikkei Aruzenchin-jin''), are Argentine citizens of

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

ancestry, comprising Japanese immigrants and their descendants born in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Japanese migration to Argentina began in 1908 with the arrival of immigrants from

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

and

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

. The first Japanese entered the country via

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and succeeding groups of immigrants tended to reach Argentina through the neighboring nations. In the pre-war years, Japanese Argentines were concentrated in urban small businesses, especially dry cleaning and cafes in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

(see :es: Café El Japonés), while some worked as domestic servants, factory workers and longshoremen. A minority of Japanese Argentines also engaged in horticulture, floriculture and fishery. There is an important Japanese community in the city of Belén de Escobar where they settled and specialised in floriculture. Between the 1960s and 1970s, more Japanese immigrants arrived in the country. Many were attracted by the economic opportunities in agriculture. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs there are 23,000 nikkei and 11,711 Japanese nationals in Argentina for a total of 34,711 people.

History

There were about 6,000 ethnic Japanese in Argentina in the late 1930s. The Argentine government was friendly with Japan up until the twilight of World War II, when pressure from the United States and the losses by the

Axis Powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

resulted in loss of diplomatic relations and the Argentine government declaring war against Japan and therefore causing Japanese institutions in the country to close. In the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

period, most ethnic Japanese decided to stay in Argentina.Masterson, Daniel M. and Sayaka Funada-Classen. ''

The Japanese in Latin America ''The Japanese in Latin America'' is a 2004 book published by the University of Illinois Press about Japanese Latin Americans. The author is Daniel Masterson, while Sayaka Funada-Classen gave research assistance related to the Japanese language. T ...

''.

University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic proje ...

, 2004. , 9780252071447. p
146
Additional immigration occurred around the 1950s.Masterson, Daniel M. and Sayaka Funada-Classen. ''

''.

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146147

Culture

In regions with a substantial Japanese population in Buenos Aires, institutions such as Japanese associations and Japanese language schools were established by early Japanese immigrants. During the United States-Japanese conflict of

, Argentina remained neutral until 1943, which limited the impact of war on the lives of Japanese Argentines. However, restrictions included the ban on meetings, Japanese education, newspaper publication, as well as a freeze on Japanese assets—which remained effective between 1944 and 1946.

Education

There is a bilingual Spanish-Japanese private school,

Instituto Privado Argentino-Japonés Instituto Privado Argentino-Japonés (IPAJ), also known as , is a bilingual Spanish-Japanese elementary and middle school in Buenos Aires. It is the only school permitted by the Argentine Ministry of Education to require students to take Japanese, ...

or Nichia Gakuin. The origins date from 1922.Nogués, Germinal. ''Buenos Aires, ciudad secreta'' (Obras Diversas).

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase ...

Grupo Editorial Argentina, May 1, 2015. , 9789500752312.

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

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"Misceláneas. En ''Yatay'' 261 se halla el único colegio japonés de Buenos Aires, cuyos orígenes se remontan a 1922 y opera como escuela bilingüe." The Asociación Cultural y Educativa Japonesa/Colegio Japonés (ブエノスアイレス日本人学校, ''Buenosu Airesu Nihonjin Gakkō''), an overseas school for Japanese national children, is located in Buenos Aires and has elementary and junior high school education.海外子女教育のご案内
" Embassy of Japan in Argentina (在アルゼンチン日本国大使館　/ Embajada del Japón en Argentina). Retrieved on January 21, 2017. "設立：1961年所在地：LA PAMPA 3520, (1430) BUENOS AIRES " It was established in 1961.

Media

Prior to

, there were four Japanese newspapers in Argentina; the United States government influenced the Argentine government to close these publications in 1944.

Notable individuals

* Mario Alberto Ishii, politician and mayor of José C. Paz * María Kodama, writer with a Japanese father * Jessica Michibata, model active in Japan * Sonoya Mizuno, actress * María Eugenia Suárez, actress *

Alicia Terada Alicia Terada (born 26 December 1956) is an Argentine politician who served as a National Deputy elected in Chaco Province. A member of the Civic Coalition ARI, Terada was first elected in 2009, serving a four-year term until 2013. Despite run ...

, politician and congresswoman * Laura Russo, politician and congresswoman

References