Comments by "Yo2" (@yo2trader539) on "What's it like being Japanese Raised in America? 🇯🇵🇺🇸" video.
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Please try to study as much Japanese language/culture as you can while in Brazil. If you can obtain N4-level or better, it will be a life-saver for you. (N4 is the bare minimum language requirement for foreign nurses to work in Japan.) The work opportunities will expand exponentially as your fluency improves. We have Nikkei-Brazilian bankers, IT engineers, doctors, nurses, university professors, consultants, public school teachers, and lawyers. We have witnessed many from the Former Soviet Union, China, Korea, etc who reach N2-level fluency in university, so it's doable. Foreign/international students who finish Japanese university and graduate programs usually have N1/N2 fluency.
We've also heard of many Japanese Descendants from Brazil who struggle in Japan at the initial phase due to lack of basic language skills. This is because Japanese Descendants are the only exception to Japan's visa policy, in which they are allowed to live/work in Japan without language skills, professional experience, or university qualification. It's really difficult when you need an interpreter for everything like going to the doctor, opening a bank account, or enrolling kids in day-care. Lack of language skills is the main impediment, so Japanese Government requires minimum Japanese fluency for the YONSEI Visa scheme.
As for Nikkei-Brazilians living in Japan, the ones who have successfully "re-integrated" into Japanese society tend to keep their distance from the Brazilian community in Japan. I'm terribly sorry to have to say this, but there are two types of Japanese-Brazilians in Japan. The ones who can speak/read and function within Japanese society, and the ones who cannot and live in a Brazilian expat bubble. The successful ones who integrated wish to raise their kids in Japan and eventually become Permanent Visa holders or even go through Naturalization. They've all experienced first-hand how dangerous, difficult, and deceiving some in the Brazilian community are, so they prefer to work or live in regions where there aren't many Brazilians. This is also why they appear to become more "COLD" to other Brazilians.
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@Ssumitani Japanese people share a common language, culture, and identity. Language is culture, and culture is religion. So if you don't know how to read/write/speak Japanese, there is no way people in Japan will consider you to be Japanese (even if both of your parents are from Japan).
Naturally, you'll be treated differently if you live in Japan and aren't fluent in Japanese. And it's not condescension that I feel when I meet Japanese Descendants who cannot speak Japanese, it's more a sense of pity that they are disconnected from their ancestral land, language, or culture. They cannot read Japanese literature, and understand music or TV. They will never understand the identity, history, or the feeling of visiting the tombs of your ancestors going back generations. (If you cannot read Japanese, you won't even able to find your ancestor's tombs anyway or speak with relatives at family functions.)
The reality is Japanese society will almost always value, respect, and appreciate somebody from say Iran, Myanmar, China, Turkey, New Zealand, Panama, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, France, Canada, South Korea, Australia, Hungary, Russia, Georgia, etc, etc...who has near-native fluency in Japanese language and culture over a Japanese Descendant who cannot even read Japanese news articles. We've always had elected officials that are naturalized citizens. We have Buddhist monks and Shinto priests from other countries. These days a 1/3 of our top Sumo Wrestlers (i.e. MAKU-UCHI) are from Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (China), Bulgaria, Georgia, Brazil, etc. They are more "Japanese" than most Japanese in Japan, protecting and preserving Japanese traditions and culture. The most popular post-war YOKOZUNA was TAIHO (大鵬), and he was half-Ukrainian born in KARAFUTO.
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