Banca de DEFESA: PEDRO SONEHARA DE MORAIS

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : PEDRO SONEHARA DE MORAIS
DATE: 28/05/2026
TIME: 15:00
LOCAL: Auditório A CCHLA
TITLE:

BETWEEN THE NORTHEAST AND JAPAN: HERMENEUTIC COMPREEHENSIONS OF BEING JAPANESE-BRAZILIAN ON RIO GRANDE DO NORTE

 

KEY WORDS:

Japanese-Brazilian, Northeast, Phenomenological-hermeneutic research,
Habitation.

 

PAGES: 138
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Psicologia
SUMMARY:

Japanese immigration in Brazil officially began on June 18, 1908, over a hundred years ago. While initially
regarded as undesirable or unassimilable, the Japanese-Brazilian population became one of the arguments for
Brazilian “racial democracy,” as proof of the non-existence of prejudices and difficulties in the lived experiences
of racialized people. As a mode of being, being Japanese-Brazilian is traversed by the historical meanings of
the world in which the subjects are inserted and by the possibilities of inhabiting that this world provides them. In
Brazil, as a result of racial characterization occurring based on physical, phenotypic traits, Japanese
descendants are generically identified as “Japanese,” a form of non-recognition of the Japanese-Brazilian
identity. Thus, there is an estrangement that compels Japanese-Brazilians to seek out people of the same
ancestry and cultural associations as a way of constructing an inhabiting, a belonging. However, this proves to
be the reality of individuals in regions with a stronger Japanese presence, such as the South and Southeast,
which concentrates the focus of studies on this mode of being Japanese-Brazilian. The Northeast region is
identified as one of the regions with the smallest number of Japanese-Brazilian inhabitants, reflecting in few
cultural associations and fewer possibilities for contact between groups of Japanese-Brazilians. In this way, this
research aims to understand, in light of Heideggerian-inspired hermeneutic phenomenology, the experience of
being a Japanese-Northeastern person residing in Rio Grande do Norte. To this end, 4 narrative interviews
were conducted with Japanese-Brazilian adults residing in Rio Grande do Norte. The interviews were recorded
in a diary of affectations and analyzed based on the adaptation of the hermeneutic circularity applied to
psychological research. From the interviews, it stands out how the possibility of meeting other Japanese
descendants represents not only social and cultural coexistence but the possibility of existential belonging. The
way the other, non-descendant, perceives the Japanese-Brazilian also appears in the narrated experiences,
evidencing the Japanese-descendant body as different and unfamiliar, as well as raising expectations regarding
this body, which can limit its possibilities. Furthermore, a sense of foreignness present in this experience is
unveiled, evidencing a questioning of the self and the absence of security in one's own homeland, pointing to
the fundamental condition of human existence: being a foreigner in existence.

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Externo à Instituição - LAURA SATOE UENO
Externa à Instituição - ANA ANDREA BARBOSA MAUX
Presidente - 1879584 - ANA KARINA SILVA AZEVEDO