Ota City, Gunma Prefecture: A Walk in a Deep Town of Chaos: “Brazil City” Reflects “A Little Hope for Japan

Migrant Workers “Settling in” Ota

Ota is often mentioned as a city where people live in harmony with foreign nationals, but the awareness of residents varies widely.

While the number of foreign residents has increased to fill the gaping holes in municipal housing complexes that have become noticeably vacant, no major problems were heard of when interviewing people in the city’s urban housing complexes.

However, there were signs in Portuguese and various other languages at garbage dumps and throughout the complex urging people to be thorough in enforcing the rules. Samy Amad, an Iranian who runs a real estate business in the neighborhood for mainly foreign clients, told us, “The rent in the center of Ota City is very low.

In the center of Ota City, the rent is about 70,000 yen. In the suburbs, the rent is less than 30,000 yen for a one-bedroom apartment and less than 50,000 yen for a three-bedroom apartment, so the number of foreign residents has increased. That is why there are overwhelmingly more complaints in the suburbs. Most of them are from the elderly and are minor complaints about noise and the way garbage is taken out.

A 20-minute drive south of Ota brings one to the center of the neighboring town of Oizumi. The signs and nameplates in the town are all in Portuguese. The town is now known as one of the leading Brazilian cities in Japan, but as of 1986, there were no Brazilians in the town.

However, with the relaxation of immigration laws in 1990 and the shortage of factory workers, the number of Brazilians surged to 1,528 in 1992. Since then, Brasil Town has been formed, and currently there are approximately 4,600 Brazilians living in the town.

Oizumi Town, the largest town in Gunma Prefecture with a population of approximately 41,000, is home to people of over 50 different nationalities. In recent years, the population of Vietnamese and Nepalese has been growing remarkably. In the past 10 years, the number of immigrants from Asia has increased by more than 1,000 people.

The working style of foreigners has changed drastically,” said an official at the town office.

The expression ‘dekasegi’ from South America is no longer appropriate in Oizumi. The number of permanent and permanent residents has increased, and there are third and fourth generation workers. Naturally, they are no longer limited to working in factories, and an increasing number of them are setting up construction and car-related companies or running restaurants and daily necessities stores. On the other hand, many Asian people still come to Japan as technical interns or for special activities. Communities in South America and Asia, and more specifically, in each country, are different.