Japanese Paraguayan

Infobox Ethnic group
group=Japanese Paraguayan
"Japonés Paraguayo"
flagicon|Japanflagicon|Paraguay
poptime=10,321
popplace=Asunción, Encarnación, rural areas of the nation
langs=Paraguayan Spanish, Guaraní, Japanese
rels=Christianity, Mahayana Buddhism, Shinto
related=Japanese people, Japanese Americans, Japanese Canadians, Japanese Mexicans, Japanese Peruvians, Japanese Brazilians

Japanese Paraguayan (Spanish: "Japonés Paraguayo", Japanese: "Nikkei Paraguaijin") is a Paraguayan citizen with Japanese ethnicity.

History

Asian immigration was not yet permitted by Paraguayan government until 20th century. The first Latin American country that Japanese people settled was Brazil. But when Brazil decided to halt Japanese immigration in 1930s, a Japanese land company built an agricultural settlement southeast of Asunción that the Japanese who were just entering Brazil the time that Japanese entry was controlled were invited to settle Paraguay. Two more colonies near Encarnación followed in the 1950s that many Japanese settlers stayed in Paraguay came from neighboring Bolivia. When World War II suddenly appeared, many Japanese Paraguayans were accused of negative descriptions, including German Paraguayans and Italian Paraguayans. Until the end of World War II, many Japanese refugees settled the nation. Japanese and Paraguayan governments made a bilateral agreement between them in 1959 to further continue Japanese settlement in Paraguay. Although most ethnic minorities possibly chose urban life, Japanese remained in agricultural colonies that there were 8,000 Japanese settlers in rural colonies in 1980s. The remaining Japanese settlers who are living in urban areas number 2,321. In spite of the long time of Japanese settlement in the country, there was a strong unfairness against Japanese-Paraguayan intermarriage, but a number of Japanese Paraguayans are Eurasians of Spanish and Japanese descent.

Language

By the late 1960s to present, Japanese Paraguayans speak Japanese, Spanish, and Guaraní. The earliest settlement supported a parallel educational system with subjects taught entirely in Japanese; the colonists eventually limited this to supplemental Japanese-language classes.

Religion

Most Japanese Paraguayans are Roman Catholic Christians. A selected number are Buddhists and Shinto.

Prominent Japanese Paraguayans

External Link

* [http://www.discovernikkei.org/wiki/index.php/Migration_Historical_Overview_Paraguay Migration Historical Overview - Paraguay]