Nikkeijin – The Japanese Peruvians

Philanthropist, volunteer worker and resident of Peru, Scott Jeppesen of the charitable organisation Sonrisas en Peru, explores the fascinating history of Japanese immigration to Peru and the strong influence that Japanese culture has played on various aspects of Peruvian society.

I currently reside in Lima, the capital of Peru. Every day I am faced with some characteristic of Peruvian culture that has been derived from Japanese origins. Urged by curiosity I soon discovered the intriguing story of the Japanese Peruvians, a large ethnic immigrant group in Peru.

The Japanese Peruvians

The Japanese Peruvians are Peruvian citizens of Japanese ethnic origin. They constitute around 0.3% of Peru’s population (estimated at nearly 90,000 in 2008) which is the second largest population of people with Japanese ancestry in Latin America after Brazil.

Peru was the first Latin American country to accept Japanese immigration. Back in 1899 the first wave of 790 Japanese immigrants arrived at the Peruvian seaport Callao aboard the “Sakura Maru” from the Japanese port of Yokohama and thus spawned the Nikkei ethnicity in Latin America.

Most notably, Japanese Peruvians were brought to the world’s attention in 1990 by the election of Alberto Fujimori, son of Japanese immigrants and the 90th president of Peru. Fujimori was the first person of Asian descent to become president of a Western country.

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The Statue Whisperer

On a recent article on this site, The Deer Humper, I had the privilege of seeing Nate (The Deer Humper) perform the ancient art of ’statue humping’.

The article on Nate touched me as I realised that an international brotherhood of people with statue fetishes does exist and I am proud to put my hand up and be part of the brethren.

Now Nate is obviously a master of the ‘humping’ sect – respect. As for me, well, I’m an all-rounder. An international man of statue violation. I am The Statue Whisperer!

So, on the following guest post for loneleeplanet is the The Statue Whisperer’s world tour and quick guide to the art of statue violation.

Lesson 1: Statues of people or animals

Biggest girl I’ve ever been with, she never called (Curitiba, Brazil)

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