In Brazil, a World Cup clash pits homeland against home for vast Japanese community

SAO PAULO: Alan Saito decided to wear both his Brazil and Japan jerseys to watch the World Cup showdown on Monday (Jun 29) between the country where his grandparents came from and his own. The Japan jersey came on top, but he had yellow-and-green face paint, too.

"Our hearts are divided," said Saito, a 47-year-old advertising digital influencer, as he watched the match at a family-owned restaurant that is popular among Sao Paulo's Japanese community.

"If Japan wins, that's fine. If Brazil wins, that's fine too," he added, before predicting a 2-1 victory for Brazil.

There are some 2 million people of Japanese descent living in Brazil, over half of them in Sao Paulo, where many families settled in the early 1900s to meet labour shortages on coffee plantations. Sao Paulo's sprawling Japanese community is the largest outside Japan. 

Many from the local Okinawan community live in the Vila Ema neighbourhood, site of Monday's watch party at the restaurant.

Decorated with both Brazilian and Japanese flags, it welcomed around 30 supporters spanning three generations.

Most wore Brazil's iconic yellow jerseys, hoping for the country's sixth World Cup title, and ate "pastel," a deep-fried pastry filled with meat, cheese or vegetables, which is a favourite in Japanese-Brazilian bar cuisine.

Sitting at the restaurant, Andresa Yumi Tacacura, 33, and her partner Rafael Miyasato, 35, agreed that the match was more emotionally complicated than most.

Both were third-generation Japanese-Brazilians who had lived in Japan for six years before returning to Brazil.

"We're 70 per cent behind Brazil and 30 per cent behind Japan," Miyasato said in Portuguese, holding their three-month-old son.  

The chants for "Go Brazil" and "Go Nipo", a common Brazilian