Japanese Uruguayan
Encyclopedia
Japanese Uruguayan is a Uruguayan
Uruguayan people
Uruguayan people or Uruguayans are the citizens of Uruguay, or its descendants abroad. Uruguay is a multiethnic society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnical backgrounds...

 with Japanese ethnicity
Ethnic Japanese
Ethnic Japanese may mean:* Japanese people, when referring to people of Japanese descent** May also be used as a term to refer to the Yamato people as opposed to the minority peoples of Japan: the Ainu, Ryukyuans, Burakumin and immigrant groups such as the Han Chinese and Koreans.* Japanese...

.

History

The first Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

n country that Japanese people settled was Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. But when Brazil decided to halt Japanese immigration in 1930s, Uruguay started were one of the countries to welcome the Japanese settlers, this is to populate the unpopulated areas. Most of them remained, mostly in the capital Montevideo. When World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 began, hostility was put against them, especially German Uruguayans and Italian Uruguayans
Italian settlement in Uruguay
An Italian Uruguayan is an Uruguayan citizen of full or partial Italian ancestry. Almost half of the population is of Italian origin or has some degree of Italian descent...

, and Japanese-language teaching in schools, especially newspaper and book publishing in this language, was prohibited. Many of them were imprisoned to the United States. After the end of the war, hundreds of Japanese refugees were still permitted by Uruguayan government to settle. In recent decades, many Japanese settlers arrived especially as businessmen to profit in the country. Japanese Uruguayans are now respected by white Uruguayans and become assimilated to the mainstream society. They are also an important part of Uruguayan culture.

Language

Most Japanese Uruguayans only speak Spanish. Only a selected number can speak Japanese, while those who attained higher education speak English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. There are many Japanese Uruguayan schools that offer English-language teaching to the recent Japanese residents.

Religion

The majority of Japanese Uruguayans are Roman Catholic Christians, while the rest are Buddhists.
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