The Political Culture of Asian Brazilians
| Autor | Benjamin Zhu - Lucas Toshiaki Archangelo Okado - Ednaldo Aparecido Ribeiro |
| Cargo | Universidade Estadual de Londrina - Universidade Federal do Pará - Universidade Estadual de Maringá |
| Páginas | 198-213 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2021.75748
198
Direito autoral e licença de uso: Este artigo está licenciado sob uma Licença Creative
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198198 – 213
Direito autoral e licença de uso: Este artigo está licenciado sob uma Licença Creative
Commons. Com essa licença você pode compartilhar, adaptar, para qualquer fim, desde que
atribua a autoria da obra, forneça um link para a licença, e indicar se foram feitas alterações.
The Political Culture of Asian
Brazilians
Benjamin Zhu1
Lucas Toshiaki Archangelo Okado2
Ednaldo Aparecido Ribeiro3
Abstract
Few studies have examined the relationship between race and politics for Asian Brazilians. Using
data from the Latin American Public Opinion Survey, we examine this relationship along two axes:
cognitive orientation towards politics and institutional condence. We use factor analysis to create
representative indices of these axes and estimate regression models using race as a predictive variable.
We nd no evidence that Asian Brazilians differ from white Brazilians along either of these two axes.
However, we nd that a university education has an especially strong relationship with cognitive
orientation towards politics for Asian Brazilians. On average, Asian Brazilians with a university
education had a cognitive orientation towards politics score 17% higher than Asian Brazilians
without a university education, though we do not nd a similar effect for institutional condence.
Overall, we nd that ethnic identity, particularly for Asians, does not have a strong effect on either of
the axes but education has different effects on them between different ethnic groups.
Keywords: Race and political behavior. Minority political behavior. Asians in Latin America. Factor
analysis.
1. Introduction
Brazil is a country of immigrants and Asian immigrants have played
an important role in her national history. Asian immigration began during
the colonial period (PEREIRA, 2014), but in 1907, the state of Sao Paulo
1 Universidade Estadual de Londrina
2 Universidade Federal do Pará
3 Universidade Estadual de Maringá
Política & Sociedade - Florianópolis - Vol. 20 - Nº 49 - Set./Dez. de 2021
199198 – 213
authorized the rst wave of Japanese immigration that would eventually
form the largest Japanese diaspora community. Today, the Japanese are
the second largest immigrant population in Brazil and the Chinese are the
ninth (WEJSA; LESSER, 2019). In 2010, over two million Brazilians self-
identied as Asian, an overwhelming majority of whom are of Japanese
descent. e Asian population in Brazil is also growing more rapidly
than other groups. Since 1947, Japanese-Brazilian politicians have been a
constant in Brazilian society (SAKURAI, 2005).
Race is an integral part of individual identity and its relationship
with politics is quite intimate. Despite this, relatively few studies have
examined this relationship for Asians, particularly in the Brazilian
political science literature or in the Brazilian context. Studies about racial
questions are almost exclusively dedicated to questions about Black,
white, and Pardo Brazilians, discussing social themes such as armative
action, state violence, and poverty. From the beginning of Brazilian race
studies, Costa Pinto excluded the “amarelos” or the yellow/Asian category
from his classication of “de cor” or of color (FRY, 2009, p. 261-282;
HASENBALG, 1988, p. 164-182). In doing so, he created a binary system
in which Asians would have an ambiguous position; neither completely
white nor completely “of color” roughout history, public discussions
about the Japanese frequently included seemingly disparate groups such
as Jews and Arabs, who were similarly excluded from the Black and white
system that dominates ethnic studies (LESSER, 2000). During the period
before World War II, Brazilian national identity underwent signicant
changes and these ambiguous groups deed notions about identity held
by the Brazilian elite. e political, social, and economic successes of these
groups gave them advantages to negotiate their social position within the
Black and white system in the latter category (LESSER, 2000).
Academic articles about Japanese Brazilians have generally focused on
immigration between Japan and Brazil and, more recently, Dekasseguês
(MCKENZIE; SALCEDO, 2014; TSUDA, 2009). Questions about
identity have also become more prominent, principally in literary studies.
In the U.S., the literature has focused on similar questions, though Asian
American studies is a far more mature eld than its Brazilian counterpart.
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