I've always known there was a relationship between Brazil and Japan and was aware of connections such as the martial art Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, however I didn't know the full history and how deep the connection was until I decided to do some research based on my surprising website visitor statistics.
More than 50% of our traffic since we launched our website only a few weeks ago has been from Brazil!
The first Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil during the Meiji Period in 1908 and there are now 1.6 million people of Japanese descent now living in Brazil. In fact Brazil is home to the second largest Japanese population outside of Japan.
In 1907 a treaty permitting Japanese migration to Brazil was signed by the Brazilian and Japanese governments. 790 Japanese immigrants travelled to Brazil in 1908 on the Kasato Maro, about half of them coming from southern Okinawa.
Today Japanese Brazilians are known in Japanese as Nikkei Burajiru-jin (日系ブラジル人) or nipo-brasileiro in Portuguese.
Welcome to Photos of Japan Brazil!