Representations of Brazilian Nikkei Dekasegi Women in Japanese Media Productions

Conference: The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film (MediAsia2022)
Title: Representations of Brazilian Nikkei Dekasegi Women in Japanese Media Productions
Stream: Critical and Cultural Studies, Gender and Communication
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Marina Kodato, University of Tsukuba, Japan

Abstract:

This study proposes film analyses of representations of Brazilian nikkei dekasegi women living in Japan in media productions, and how their struggles with the culture, people, and work are portrayed considering their cultural identities, specifically their gender, nationality, and ethnics. The migration flow between both countries began in 1908, with Japanese families going to work in Brazil, and the inverse process started during the 1990s with the Brazilian descendants of these Japanese immigrants going back to Japan. The conflicts these people face are shown through different perspectives in the chosen productions: Muito Prazer (Park, 2021), Watashitachiwa Gaijinjanai (Ishida, 2020), and Kodoku na Tsubametachi (Tsumura, Nakamura, 2012); a medium-length fiction, a television documentary special and a participative documentary, respectively. There are both male and female directors, all non-Brazilians, therefore the position occupied by these Japanese productions in the face of the Brazilian dekasegi community can be considered to be from the outside. However, because of their personal proximity with the characters portrayed, the films deviate from stereotypes and try to single out individual stories. The focus of this research relies on the similarity of cases treated as unique, which provide material for analyses using feminist film theories to explore how cultural, historical, and social issues are rooted and have not changed yet, such as the non-identification and refusal of the Japanese culture, feeling of non-belonging and the always lingering perspective of going back to Brazil, particularly for women, who face gender-related obstacles at the cost of their physical and mental health.

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