View source for Asian Brazilians

{{Short description|Brazilians of Asian birth or descent}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Asian Brazilians
| native_name      = {{native name|pt|Brasileiros orientais}}
| popplace         = Mainly in [[São Paulo (state)|São Paulo]], [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]] and [[Pará]]
| pop              = '''East Asian ancestry predominates'''<br>{{decrease}} '''850,130''' ([[2022 Brazilian census|2022 census]])<br/>{{decrease}} 0.42% of Brazilian population<ref group=nt>The exact number of Asian descendants remains unknown. Brazil's census does not officially use the term "Asian" as a racial category, instead using the term ''amarela'' (yellow) in reference to ethnic East Asians. Older estimates for other Asian communities in Brazil, particularly the Lebanese-Brazilian community, make up an estimated 7 million people.</ref><ref name="ibge.gov.br">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/populacao/censo2010/caracteristicas_da_populacao/tabelas_pdf/tab3.pdf|date=8 November 2011|title=Censo Demográfi co 2010 Características da população e dos domicílios Resultados do universo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525132840/http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/populacao/censo2010/caracteristicas_da_populacao/tabelas_pdf/tab3.pdf|access-date=12 July 2014|archive-date=25 May 2013}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/presidencia/noticias/noticia_visualiza.php?id_noticia=2170&id_pagina=1 The Japan Times Online<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
| langs            = [[Brazilian Portuguese|Portuguese]]<br> Other languages of Asia, including [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Chinese language|Chinese dialects]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
| rels             = Majority Christian:<ref>[http://www.adital.com.br/site/noticia.asp?lang=PT&cod=23402 Adital - Brasileiros no Japão<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070329224947/http://www.adital.com.br/site/noticia.asp?lang=PT |date=2007-03-29 }}</ref> 61.2% [[Roman Catholicism]], 13.3% [[Protestantism]], 12.5% [[Non-religious]], 0.8% other Christian beliefs<ref name="FGV">{{in lang|pt}} [http://www.fgv.br/cps/simulador/REL/POF_2_LGA/tabelas.asp Study ''Panorama of religions'']. [[Fundação Getúlio Vargas]], 2003.</ref><br/>Minority: [[Buddhism]], [[Judaism]], [[Shinto]] and Shinto-derived [[Japanese new religions]], [[Taoism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Islam]], [[Sikhism]], [[Jainism]], [[Zoroastrianism]] and [[Druze]]<ref>[https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90244.htm Brazil<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
}}

'''Asian Brazilians''' ({{langx|pt|Brasileiros asiáticos}}) refers to Brazilian citizens or residents of Asian ancestry. The vast majority trace their origins to [[Western Asia]], particularly [[Lebanon]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=Petruccelli|first1=Jose Luis|last2=Saboia|first2=Ana Lucia|title=Caracteristicas Etnico-raciais da Populacao Classificacoes e identidades|url=https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv63405.pdf|access-date=28 July 2021|website=[[IBGE]]|p=53|quote=descendentes e os asiáticos – japoneses, chineses, coreanos, libaneses, sírios, entre outros}}</ref> or [[East Asia]], namely [[Japan]]. The Brazilian census does not use "Asian" as a racial category, though the term "yellow" (''amarela'' in Portuguese) refers to people of East Asian ethnic origin. 

Beyond the descendants from West Asia and East Asia, there has also been much smaller immigration from [[Southeast Asia]] and [[South Asia]], as well as those from the Asian diaspora in the Caribbean and Mozambique.

Brazil has the largest community of [[Japanese diaspora|Japanese descendants]] outside of [[Japan]]. Japanese immigrants started to move to Brazil in 1908, were directed to the Brazilian coffee plantations.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Leão |first=Gabriel |date=2021-04-02 |title=I fear for Asian communities in Brazil |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/4/2/i-fear-for-asian-communities-in-brazil |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230525235225/https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/4/2/i-fear-for-asian-communities-in-brazil |archive-date=2023-05-25 |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |location=[[São Paulo]]}}</ref>

==History==
Recent research has suggested that Asians from the early [[Portuguese Eastern Empire]], known as [[Luso-Asians]] first came to Brazil during the sixteenth century as seamen known as [[Lascars]], or as servants, slaves and [[concubines]] accompanying the governors, merchants and clergy who has served in Portuguese Asia.<ref>East in the West: Investigating the Asian presence and influence in Brazil from the 16th to 18th centuries. By Clifford Pereira, in Proceedings of the 2nd Asia-Pacific regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage. Ed. Hans Van Tilberg, Sila Tripati, Veronica Walker, Brian Fahy and Jun Kimura. Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA. May 2014.</ref> 

The first substantial Asian immigration to Brazil were a small number of [[Chinese people]] (3,000) during the colonial period as [[coolie]] slaves. Later waves of Chinese immigrants would come from Hong Kong and [[Macau]], the latter being a former Portuguese colony,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil|last=Lesser|first=Jeffrey|publisher=Duke University Press|year=1999|isbn=0-8223-2260-9|location=Durham & London|pages=16}}</ref> as well as China's [[Russians in China|ethnic Russian community]] during the 1950s.<ref name="China Russia">{{cite journal|last=Ruseishvili|first=S.A.|title=Russian immigration to Brazil in the first half of the 20th century: migration routes and adaptation patterns |url=https://www.iberpapers.org/jour/article/view/414?locale=en_US |journal= Cuadernos Iberoamericanos |volume=8 |issue=3|doi=10.46272/2409-3416-2020-8-3-54-73 |access-date=4 November 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306060807/https://www.iberpapers.org/jour/article/view/414?locale=en_US |archive-date=6 March 2022|quote=and the third one is the resettlement of the Russians from China during the 1950s.|doi-access=free }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="float: right;"
|-
! colspan="8" |East Asian Brazilians 1940-2022
|- 
! Year
! Population
! <small>% of<br />Brazil</small>
|-
||'''1940'''||242,320||{{steady}}  0.59%	
|-
||'''1950'''||329,082||{{increase}} 0.63%
|-
||'''1960'''||482,848||{{increase}} 0.69%	
|-
||'''1980'''||672,251||{{decrease}} 0.56%	
|-
||'''1991'''||630,656||{{decrease}} 0.43%
|-
||'''2000'''||761,583||{{increase}} 0.45%
|-
||'''2010'''||2,084,288||{{increase}} 1.09%	
|-
||'''2022'''||850,130||{{decrease}} 0.42%
|-
| colspan="8" style="text-align:left;" |<small>Source: Brazilian census<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tabela 9605: População residente, por cor ou raça, nos Censos Demográficos |url=https://sidra.ibge.gov.br/tabela/9605#resultado |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=sidra.ibge.gov.br}}</ref></small>
|}

Later, significant immigration from Asia to Brazil would start in the late 19th century, when immigration from [[Lebanon]] and [[Syria]] became important. Until 1922, [[Levant]]ine immigrants were considered "Turks", as they carried passports issued by the Turkish [[Ottoman Empire]], which then ruled over present-day [[Lebanon]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2004-12-31 |title=Recopilaron casi 200 años de los sirio libaneses en Argentina |trans-title=They collected almost 200 years of the Syrian Lebanese in Argentina |url=http://www.elindependiente.com.ar/papel/hoy/archivo_2004/noticias_v.asp?39074 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140908043743/http://www.elindependiente.com.ar/papel/hoy/archivo_2004/noticias_v.asp?39074 |archive-date=2014-09-08 |work=[[El Independiente (Colombian newspaper)|El Independiente]] |language=es-CO}}</ref> Various estimates for Lebanese ancestry in Brazil place them at about 7 million.<ref name="itamaraty1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7223:lebanese-republic&catid=155&lang=en&Itemid=478 |title=Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affaires |access-date=22 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923004630/http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7223:lebanese-republic&catid=155&lang=en&Itemid=478 |archive-date=23 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="libano1">{{cite web|url=http://www.libano.org.br/olibano_geografia.htm |title=Lebanon: Geography |language=pt |work=Embassy of Lebanon in Brazil |date=1996 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529005221/http://www.libano.org.br/olibano_geografia.htm |archive-date=29 May 2008}}</ref>

Another important Asian immigrant group to Brazil were from [[Japan]]. The first [[Japanese immigration in Brazil|Japanese immigrants]] arrived in Brazil in 1908. Until the 1950s, more than 250 thousand Japanese immigrated to Brazil. Currently, the [[Japanese-Brazilian]] population is estimated at 2.1 million people. It is the largest [[Japanese people|ethnic Japanese]] population outside Japan, followed closely by the [[Japanese Americans|Japanese community in the United States]]. 

Other East Asian groups are also significant in Brazil. The [[Korean Brazilian]] population is estimated to be 50,000, and the [[Chinese Brazilian]] population around 250,000. Over 70% of Asian Brazilians are concentrated in the state of [[São Paulo (state)|São Paulo]]. There are significant populations in [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]], [[Pará]], [[Mato Grosso do Sul]], and other parts of Brazil.

===Japanese in Brazil===
{{Main article|Japanese Brazilians}}
[[File:Affiche émigration JP au BR-déb. XXe s..jpg|thumb|right|A [[poster]] used in [[Japan]] to attract immigrants to [[Brazil]]]]
[[File:Street in Liberdade, São Paulo.jpg|thumb|right|Liberdade village in [[São Paulo]]]]
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ Japanese immigration to Brazil<br>Source: ([[Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics|IBGE]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/home.html|title=Estatísticas do Povoamento|trans-title=Population Statistics|work=IBGE|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809004704/http://www.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/home.html|archive-date=9 August 2007}}</ref>
|-
! rowspan="2" | Ethnic group
! colspan="10" | Period
|- align="center"
!1904-1913||1914-1923||1924-1933||1945-1949||1950-1954||1955-1959
|- 
| Japanese||11,868||20,398||110,191||12||5,447||28,819
|}

===Restrictions on Asian immigrants===
Although discussions were situated in a theoretical field, immigrants arrived and colonies were founded through all this period (the rule of [[Pedro II of Brazil|Pedro II]]), especially from 1850 on, particularly in the [[Southeast Region, Brazil|Southeast]] and [[Southern Brazil]]. These discussions culminated in the Decree 528 in 1890, signed by Brazil's first President [[Deodoro da Fonseca]], which opened the national harbors to immigration except for Africans and Asians.<ref>[https://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/decret/1824-1899/decreto-528-28-junho-1890-506935-publicacaooriginal-1-pe.html Decree No. 528, of June 28, 1890]</ref> This decree remained valid until 5 October 1892 when, due to pressures of coffee planters interested in cheap manpower, it was overturned by Law 97, which allowed the entry of [[Japanese people|Japanese]] immigrants to work on the coffee plantations, as until then, Brazilian immigration was almost exclusively from Europe.<ref>Masato Ninomiya [http://www.usp.br/revistausp/28/17-massato.pdf O centenário do Tratado de Amizade, Comércio e Navegação entre Brasil e Japão] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131229002618/http://www.usp.br/revistausp/28/17-massato.pdf |date=December 29, 2013 }}. in Revista USP, December 1995/February 1996. p. 248.</ref>

==See also==
*[[East Asian people]]
*[[Asian Latin Americans]]
*[[Chinese Brazilians]]
*[[Filipino immigration to Brazil]]
*[[Indian immigration to Brazil]]
*[[Japanese Brazilians]]
*[[Korean Brazilians]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=nt}}
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Overseas Asians}}
{{Ancestry and ethnicity in Brazil}}

[[Category:Asian diaspora in Brazil| ]]
[[Category:Brazilian people of Asian descent| ]]
[[Category:Immigration to Brazil]]
[[Category:Race in Brazil]]