Homi Danchi

 

In 1990, Japan's immigration laws were changed, and TOYOTA began accepting Brazilian workers at once.

 The Brazilian workers who migrated to Japan in search of such jobs started living in the Homi Danchi in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture.

 

About 4,000 Brazilians are living in this housing complex which consists of 67 buildings and two-thirds of the students attending the nearby elementary school are Brazilian.

Within the complex, there are stores run by Brazilians, including supermarkets and restaurants that sell Brazilian food, creating a community with a strong sense of its own culture.

 

While living in this housing complex, I continued photographing for three years from 2015.

"Barbecues, birthday parties, baby showers, graduation ceremonies, release celebrations, births, farewells, encounters"

During the changing seasons, I captured the daily lives of the Brazilians in the Homi danchi, with the boys and girls at the center, as they intersected with Japanese society.

 

I was able to understand the overwhelming cheerfulness of these people in a severe environment where they cannot belong to either Brazil or Japan.

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