From the need for an interdisciplinary look at Japanese culture and language to clinical practice with Japanese people and their descendants.
Even before graduating as a psychologist, my interest in studies about foreigners, migrants and especially in relation to Japanese culture and language caught my attention. Therefore, I delved deeper into the study of the language through courses offered by Nikkei communities in Rio de Janeiro and Niterói. Later, as a trained psychologist, the demand for assistance with foreigners, Japanese and people of Japanese descent emerged in my clinical practice; through which I was able to arrive at some relevant considerations regarding the need for an interdisciplinary look and approach to Japanese culture and language when it comes to clinical practice with foreigners, especially those of Japanese descent.
Unfortunately, it is still not possible to find many studies in Psychology, especially clinical practice, with Japanese people and/or descendants in Brazil, specifically in Rio de Janeiro, and those that are available focus on issues such as e/migration and studies on decasséguis (TASHIMA & TORRES , 2016; CARIGNATO, 2004); as well as work in other areas, such as: social and identity studies with Japanese families or on acculturation (KOJIMA, 2005; SAITO, 1980; OKAMOTO, 2007; KUO, 2014 and among others).
As a result of migratory and historical movements - whether for economic, political or identity reasons - several institutions, colonies, communities or cultural centers were established in Brazilian territory (IBGE, 2008) and the regions of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro meet today as major hubs of these displacements; A large number of immigrants or descendants reside in Rio de Janeiro and Baixada Fluminense. These are the regions where the demand arose in my clinical practice as a psychologist.
Many questions arose when meeting Japanese people and their descendants at the clinic and the need for an approximation and understanding of culture and language became tools for understanding the implications of each subject when reporting the impasses of their experiences, whether family, identity or professional. Topics such as disagreements and cultural differences between Brazil and Japan, topics such as xenophobia/racism (yellow racism), as well as issues related to the ways in which emotions are seen, such as the concepts of honne (when a person expresses their true opinions) and tatemae ( when one hides one's opinions in order to avoid conflict) which are phenomena thought of in a particular way when it comes to Japanese culture (NAITO & GIELEN, 1992).
In relation, particularly, to the presence of the theme of xenophobia/racism, which also appears daily in Brazilian culture through expressions such as: “ô Japa” or “slanted eyes”, many descendants raise questions when, when asked if they are Japanese, they are explaining or justifying themselves regarding their Brazilian nationality. It is possible to perceive this issue in the research carried out by Takaki and Bassani (2014) when exposing the dilemmas and identity construction processes of young Nikkei people.
The perspective of the Japanese family was also something to be understood and understood within the logic of the culture, as this notion of family is linked to a series of bonds. The association with the word in Japanese Ie (“house”) is represented by a “family institution or entity that goes beyond material property and transcends present, past and future” (KEBBE, 2016, p. 2); to this end, this complexity of relationships that occur in different ways compared to Brazilian culture will have no reference or similarity. Other authors such as Bhappu (2000) and Benedict (1946) also work on the notions that this concept possesses, as well as the notion of honor that is directed to each family member.
The cultural traits of the different peoples and cultures of a nation do not constitute homogeneity, not even in their own territories, and many practices and customs are distinct in their regionalism. The diversity of culture is constituted as a set of “complex world views, which alternate based on the movement and consequent interaction of people over time” (AMARO, 2005, p. 4). Therefore, whether for the Japanese who arrive in Brazil, specifically in Rio de Janeiro or descendants who were born in Brazil, such diversities and world views will be present. Such subjects find themselves, in a way, in processes that are being made and remade as they encounter and diverge, in the field of interdisciplinarity.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The entire course of discussion so far has been an attempt to highlight some relationships and perspectives to think, in a different way, about clinical practice with Japanese people or descendants in a particular way to highlight the need for an interdisciplinary look that shapes our practices and attitudes with the foreigner, specifically the Japanese.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
BENNEDICT, R. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword : Patterns of Japanese Culture. Boston: Houghton Miffin, 1946.
BHAPPU, AD The Japanese Family: In Institutional Logic for Japanese Corporate Networks and Japanese Management. In. Academic Management Review , Vol. 25, no. 2, p. 409-415, 2000.
CARIGNATO TT The Place of the Subject in contemporary migrations: The Dekassegui Experience. DEBIAGGI, SD; PAIVA, GJ (Orgs). Psychology, E/Immigration and Culture. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo, 2004, pp. 227-248.
IBGE BRAZILIAN INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS. Resistance and Integration: 100 years of Japanese immigration in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Documentation and information dissemination center, 2008.
KEBBE VH Japanese Kinship, Nikkei Family: reflections on the Japanese family, Japan Foundation in São Paulo, published on February 17, 2016. Available at: http://fjsp.org.br/site/wp-content/uploads/2016 /02/victor_hugo_kebbe.pdf Accessed on: 07/21/2018.
KOJIMA, H. Japanese Brazilian Attitudes and Behaviors Relating to the Social Security System. Y. Chitose (Ed.), FY 2004 Report on the Linkage between International Migration Policy and Social Security Policy in Light of Population Decline, 2005.
KUO, BCH Coping, acculturation, and psuchological adaptation among migrants: a theoretical and empirical review and synthesis of the literature. Healthy Psychology and Behavioral Medicine: In Open Access Journal, Vol. 2, no. 1, 2014.
NAITO T. & GIELEN UP Tatemae and Honne: A study of moral relativism in Japanese Culture. In Geilen UP, Adler, LL. & N. A. Milgram (Eds.). Psychology in International Perspective . Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger.
OKAMOTO MY Dekassegui and Family: encounters and disagreements. Doctoral thesis. Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, 2007.
SAITO JK Participation, mobility and identity. In: SAITO, H. (ORG). The Japanese presence in Brazil. São Paulo: TA Queiroz/Edusp, 1980.
TAKAKI N. & BASSANI JJ The Place of the Body in the Identity Construction Processes of Young Nikkei People . Poiésis – Magazine of the Postgraduate Program in Education, University of Santa Catarina, Unisul, Tubarão, v.8, n.14, p.403-426, 2014.
TASHIMA JN & TORRES CV Brazilian Emigration to Japan: past, present and future. OBMigra Notebooks V. 2, n. 1, 2016
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