Japanese commercial activities in French Indochina from the late 19th century to 1945

From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Japan promoted trade and investment in Southeast Asia, including French Indochina. As a subregion with an abundance of natural resources and potential consumption market, Indochina became an attractive destination for Japanese merchants and companies. The Japanese merchants moved into French Indochina from the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century together with the great surge of Japanese immigration to Southeast Asian countries since the end of the Meiji period. In the first phase, the number of Japanese merchants in Indochina was relatively small and mainly engaged in importing and exporting activities or grocery trading. In addition to merchants, Japanese economic zaibatsu and companies started to open representative offices or branches in Indochina such as Mitsui Bussan, Mitsubishi, Menka which focused on purchasing rice and coal. However, from the early 20th century to the late 1930s, commercial activities of Japanese merchants and companies in Indochina were restricted due to various reasons. From the late 1930s to the 1940s, along with Japanese commercial policy towards Southeast Asia, especially the entry of Japanese military into Indochina, the Japanese merchants and companies expanded their commercial activities in this region, through which the great impacts were put upon foreign trade activities in Indochina as well as the commercial relationship between Japan and Indochina.

Japanese Immigrants’ Pantry

This article explores the role of cookbooks in supporting the creation of new eating habits and identities during the Japanese immigration to Brazil. When Japanese immigrants first arrived in Brazil in 1908, the local food represented a major barrier to their acclimation in the new country. Unknown ingredients and disgust for popular seasonings like pork fat and garlic prevented Japanese immigrants from preparing familiar meals and caused drastic changes to their diets. After nearly three decades improvising meals, Japanese immigrants started to better incorporate Brazilian ingredients into their eating habits when an alliance between the Brazilian and the American governments in 1937, and Japan’s defeat in World War II pressured them to adopt Brazil as their new home country. As Japanese immigrants internalized a new mindset focused on making Brazil their permanent home, cookbooks written by immigrants not only taught them how to use Brazilian ingredients, but also reflected immigrants’ improvements in building a higher-quality lifestyle. This article analyzes cookbooks written by Japanese immigrants in tandem with private diaries and recipes to examine the complex process of creating new eating habits as well as new Brazilian Nikkei identities.

Australia’s Minor Concessions to Japanese Citizens under the White Australia Policy

This paper explores concessions made by Australian authorities concerning Japanese immigration during the era of the White Australia Policy in the early twentieth century. Australia’s Immigration Restriction Act was introduced in December 1901. As the major piece of legislation in the White Australia Policy, the act made it virtually impossible for non-Europeans to migrate to Australia. However, Japanese people enjoyed a special position among non-Europeans under the White Australia Policy thanks to Japan’s growing international status as a civilised power at the time, as well as its sustained diplomatic pressure on Australia. While the Commonwealth was determined to exclude Japanese permanent settlers, it sought ways to render the policy of exclusion less offensive to the Japanese. In the early 1900s, two minor modifications to the Immigration Restriction Act were implemented in order to relax the restrictions imposed on Japanese citizens. Moreover, in the application of Commonwealth immigration laws, Japanese people received far more lenient treatment than other non-Europeans and were afforded respect and extra courtesies by Australian officials. Nevertheless, these concessions Australia made to Japanese citizens were minor, and the Commonwealth government maintained its basic policy of excluding Japanese permanent settlers from Australia. This paper shows that, despite continued diplomatic efforts, Japan was fundamentally unable to change pre-war Australia’s basic policy regarding the exclusion of Japanese permanent settlers.

Nikkei Literature in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

This research paper presents the preliminary findings of a homonymous project, which aims to study the literary production of nikkei (people of Japanese descent) in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. This project investigates the existence of this production and intends to study it as part of contemporary Brazilian literature. The scope of the research considers the nikkei production as one of the evidences that show the process of hybridization to which Stuart Hall refers in his text "The question of cultural identity"(1992). It also seeks to discover the historical and geographical context of this production as well as aspects related to Japanese immigration in the state, even before its emancipation.

Empire and Exclusion

Japanese expansion after the Russo-Japanese War was dynamic and multi-directional, and manifested itself in the growth of trade and emigration across the Pacific as well as territorial acquisition in Asia. The fourth chapter explores the Japanese ‘immigration crisis’ of 1906–8, when an increase in the number of Japanese immigrants sparked a panic on the Pacific coast of North America. Its central focus is on the Vancouver riots of September 1907, the largest incidence of anti-Asian violence during this period. Mass rioting against Japanese immigrants placed the Canadian government in in a difficult position, as it attempted to reconcile the clamour for a ‘white Canada’ with its position in the empire. This chapter analyses British and Canadian efforts to manage the migration crisis. It also dwells on the crisis’s transnational dimension, which expressed itself through declarations of racial solidarity between Canada and the United States.

Alliance and Empire

The final chapter brings the book’s strands together in a re-examination of the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1911 and its political aftermath. Friction over China, immigration, and naval security, had by this point, cast significant doubts over the viability of Britain’s partnership with Japan, and revealed the difficulties of maintaining a unified foreign policy within an increasingly decentralized imperial system. In turn, this forced London to develop new forms of managing its relations with the white dominions, seeking their endorsement for the renewal of the Japanese alliance at the 1911 imperial conference. Yet London’s hopes that it might settle the ‘Japanese question’ as an imperial issue quickly proved misplaced. In the years that followed, Canada was further tightened its restrictions on Japanese immigration, while Australia and New Zealand became embroiled with London over the Pacific naval policies of the new First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. Once again, British ties to Japan became a point of divergence between metropolitan and colonial perspectives on empire, race, and the future of global politics.