Poster for the Recruitment of Emigrants

Description

This poster was made by the Japanese Settlement Company of South America, which was mainly financed by a giant textiles group in Japan. This company was established in 1928 to promote emigration from Japan to the Amazon River basin, in Para Province in Brazil. Japanese emigration to Brazil began in 1908, and reached its peak in 1926–35. Following the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888, the government of Brazil looked to immigrants to address a labor shortage in the increasingly important coffee industry. European immigrants, particularly Italians, filled the gap at first, but were later joined by immigrants from Japan, where rural poverty was widespread and the economy was struggling to modernize and to reabsorb soldiers returning after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5).

Last updated: February 12, 2016