Japanese Argentines are Argentine citizens of Japanese ancestry, comprising Japanese immigrants and their descendants born in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

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

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

and

Kagoshima , is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 583,966 in 285,992 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Etymology While the ...

. The first Japanese entered the country via

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

(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 of Japan, there are 115,000 descendants and 11,440 Japanese nationals in Argentina.

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, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...

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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

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, thirty-three scholarly journals, and several electroni ...

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

, 2004. , 9780252071447. p
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. There are notable

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

s in Palermo (Buenos Aires) and Belén de Escobar.

Education

There is a bilingual Spanish-Japanese private school, Instituto Privado Argentino-Japonés or Nichia Gakuin. The origins date from 1922.Nogués, Germinal. ''Buenos Aires, ciudad secreta'' (Obras Diversas).

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

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 that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

br>PT263
"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 Sonoya Mizuno (born 1 July 1986) is a Japanese-born English actress. She is known for her roles in the Netflix series ''Maniac (miniseries), Maniac'' (2018), the HBO series ''House of the Dragon'' (2022–present), the FX on Hulu, FX miniseries ...

, actress * María Eugenia Suárez, actress * Alicia Terada, politician and congresswoman * Laura Russo, politician and congresswoman

References