The return of the Japanese pig

[fernando]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4244392.stm



And shall I predict something for you? Garcia will be the next president of Peru and after him Fujimori will be back again...great huh history repeats itself once again...

[Severian]

The "Japanese pig"? Alberto Fujimori is no more Japanese than I am German,* and why is his ancestry among the many reasons to oppose him? Sounds racist (I hope unintentionally.)





* Funny story: at one point the Japanese government failed to realize this, and in its efforts to expand the labor force while maintaining cultural homogeneity, encouraged Peruvian-Japanese and Brazilian-Japanese to return to the land of their ancestors. This did not work out as expected:


n reaction to the virtual impossibility of "fitting it," Japanese Brazilian migrants tend to accentuate their otherness. This they accomplish by public displays that clearly set them apart from native Japanese: wearing gaudy (by Japanese standards) clothing, talking loudly (in Portuguese), greeting each other with kisses, and so on. Such behavior marks them as "foreign," a result that is, Dr. Tsuda argued, exactly what they want.

Interestingly, these public displays are often studied and staged. Dr. Tsuda spoke of performances of samba on the streets of Japan. Many of the participants do not know how to dance the samba, do not care much for the samba, and in fact may even disdain the samba. However, performing the samba is, of course, an effective way of demonstrating their foreignness. Thus, people who would never think of dancing the samba when they were in Brazil, join in the samba when in Japan.

Subjectively, most Japanese Brazilian migrants also come to highlight their "Brazilness." Dr. Tsuda's interviewees often spoke of how the question of identity did not much enter their mind until they came to Japan. Then, in Japan, constantly faced with issues of identity, interviewees came not just to feel Brazilian but to revel in it. Their views of Brazil, which may have been quite critical when they resided in Brazil, became quite positive when they resided in Japan.
link (http://www.isop.ucla.edu/asia/article.asp?parentid=6996)

[Reuben]

if i was still politics mod i would delete this thread