Editing Issei (section)

==History==
The earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants settled in Mexico in 1897.<ref name="mofa-Mexico">Ministry of Foreign Affairs: [http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/latin/mexico/index.html  ''Japan-Mexico Foreign Relations'']</ref> In the 21st century, the four largest populations of diaspora Japanese and descendants of Japanese immigrants in the Western Hemisphere live in Brazil, the United States, Canada, and Peru.

===Brazilian {{transliteration|ja|issei}}===
{{main|Japanese Brazilians}}
[[File:Santos-maru Brazil.jpg|thumb|Japanese immigrants in Brazil in the 1930s.]]
Brazil is home to the largest ethnic Japanese population outside Japan, numbering an estimated more than 1.5&nbsp;million (including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity),<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/latin/brazil/index.html| title = Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Japan-Brazil Relations}}</ref> more than that of the 1.2&nbsp;million in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:041&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=en |title=US Census data 2005 |access-date=20 September 2008 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212035921/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:041&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=en |archive-date=12 February 2020 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The {{transliteration|ja|issei}} Japanese Brazilians are an important part of Asian ethnic minorities in Brazil.

===American {{transliteration|ja|issei}}===
{{main|Japanese Americans}}
The first members of the {{transliteration|ja|issei}} emigrated not directly to the [[mainland United States]], but to Hawaii. These emigrants—the first of whom arrived on board the [[steamship]] ''[[City of Tokio]]'' in February 1885—were common laborers escaping hard times in Japan to work in Hawai'i. Their immigration was subsidized by the Hawaiian government, as cheap labor was needed for important commodity crops, especially its [[sugar plantation]]s. Numerous Japanese eventually settled in Hawaii.<ref>Tate, E. Mowbray. (1986). [https://books.google.com/books?id=OuUvlfcIGRQC&q=Transpacific+Steam ''Transpacific Steam: The Story of Steam Navigation from the Pacific Coast of North America to the Far East and the Antipodes, 1867–1941''], p. 231</ref><!-- Note: many of the emigrants to Hawai'i came from the Ryukyuan islands due to heavy tax increases there, resulting in a drain of labour; some mention of this would be good. Please see the article on the Ryukyuan islands for more details.-->

Emigration of Japanese directly to the mainland began in 1885, when "student-laborers" landed on the West Coast of the United States.<ref>Sakata, Yasuo. (1992). ''Fading Footsteps of the Issei,'' p. 1.</ref> The earliest of these emigrated to San Francisco. Their numbers continually increased in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Their purpose in moving to America was to gain advanced knowledge and experience to develop the modern society at home. Both students and laborers were attracted by the image of the United States as a country that welcomed foreigners. When they first arrived in the U.S., they had not intended to live there permanently, but rather to learn from Americans and to take that knowledge back home. While they encountered discrimination, they also made opportunities, and many settled in California, and later in Washington and Oregon as well as Alaska (to a lesser degree).

===Canadian {{transliteration|ja|issei}}===
{{main|Japanese Canadians}}
Within Japanese-Canadian communities across Canada, like their American counterparts, three distinct subgroups developed, each with different socio-cultural referents, generational identity, and wartime experiences.<ref name="mclellan36">McLellan, Janet. (1999). [https://books.google.com/books?id=NMm024458s4C&dq=Sansei+canada&pg=PA36  ''Many Petals of the Lotus: Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto,'' p. 36.]</ref><ref name="IkawaFumiko">Ikawa, Fumiko. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/667278  "Reviews: ''Umi o Watatta Nippon no Mura'' by Masao Gamo and "''Steveston Monogatari: Sekai no Naka no Nipponjin''" by Kazuko Tsurumi], ''American Anthropologist'' (US). New Series, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Feb. 1963), pp. 152–156.</ref> The narrative of {{transliteration|ja|issei}} Japanese-Canadians include post-Pearl Harbor experiences of uprooting, incarceration, and dispersal of the pre-war Japanese-Canadian communities.<ref>Oiwa, Keibo and Joy Kogawa. (1991). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pAIVAAAAYAAJ&q=uprooting  ''Stone Voices: Wartime Writings of Japanese Canadian Issei,'' p. 18.]</ref><!-- Number of ethnic Japanese in Canada? current lives? -->

===Peruvian {{transliteration|ja|issei}}===
{{main|Japanese Peruvians}}
Among the approximately 100,000 (2021)<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2023-08-24|language=en|title=Japan-Peru Relations (Basic Data)|url=https://www.mofa.go.jp/region/latin/peru/data.html|website=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> Peruvians of Japanese descent living in Peru, the {{transliteration|ja|issei}} Japanese Peruvians comprise a small number.