Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates how is the construction of Okinawan kinship and the constitution of such families in the city of Campo Grande. The research will focus on people / families that make up the associations in the Okinawan city.

Paper long abstract:

Japan has always been permeated by the myth of ethnic homogeneity. The idea that homogeneity is present even in countries receiving "nikkeys" immigrants, as is the case in Brazil. However, for the last decades it has been possible to note that the multiplicity and diversity are also part of the japanese reality. This diversity makes the group think of themselves and others to think as opposites. Thus, Campo Grande becomes field investigation of this heterogeneity, since it possesses two distinct groups - the Okinawans and the "japoneses" - in an opposition movement and aggregation throughout history. When thinking of a "Japanese unit" we are not paying attention to details that make up the relations between the groups involved (Okinawans, non-Okinawans and non-western). The purpose of this research is therefore to understand how notions of family and belonging can build the oppositions and differences between Japanese immigrants and their descendants.