Nikkei Chefs in São Paulo Are Finally Being Recognized

KasatoKasato Maru is a well-known name across numerous Japanese restaurants in São Paulo. It frequently appears on menus, representing a variety of sushi and sashimi. This dish is named not after an individual, but after a passenger ship that transported 781 Japanese immigrants to Brazil in 1908, marking the beginning of decades of migration across the Pacific.

Nikkei Restaurants Seek Their Identity in Japan’s Little Brazil

This article is part of a two-part series exploring the landscape of Brazilian Japanese Nikkei cuisine on both sides of the Pacific. Check out the related article here.

The ship has come to symbolize the cultural exchange between Japan and Brazil and has played a role in shaping the largest Japanese community outside of Japan. However, the offerings on the ship-shaped sushi platter that shares its name—California rolls, avocado uramaki, and other internationally popular dishes—do not accurately represent Brazil’s Nikkei (Japanese diaspora) community. Similarly, much of the fare at São Paulo’s numerous Japanese restaurants, which, according to the Brazilian Association of Japanese Gastronomy, outnumber the country's ubiquitous steakhouses, fails to reflect this unique heritage.

“In many Mytouries, we mainly see a repetition of the sushi trend and a shift towards the American style,” states Telma Shiraishi, chef at Aizomê, a Japanese restaurant located in São Paulo’s Jardim Paulista area. “The rise of combinations featuring cream cheese, jalapeño, and avocado—elements I personally deem distortions—has become the norm. Dishes often incorporate ingredients that aren't authentically Japanese or Brazilian.”

Telma adopts a thoughtful, locavore approach to Japanese cuisine, frequently traveling across Brazil to explore local ingredients and collaborate with Brazilian chefs. She prepares saikyo yaki (fish marinated in sweet miso) using pirarucu (an Amazonian fish), substitutes palm heart for bamboo shoots in nimono (simmered dishes), and has crafted a version of kuri gohan (chestnut rice) incorporating Brazil’s araucaria pine nut.

She is part of a rising movement among chefs of Japanese descent in Brazil who aim to create dishes that reflect the history and modern culture of the Nikkei community. By leveraging the growth of Brazilian gastronomy, they combine Japanese techniques with local Brazilian ingredients, showcasing the culinary ties between the two nations and championing innovative Japanese Brazilian Nikkei cuisine over a century after the arrival of the first immigrants.

The passengers aboard the Kasato Maru, along with subsequent waves of immigrants, primarily relocated to work on Brazilian farms, particularly coffee plantations, which required labor following the abolition of slavery in 1888 and the drop in European immigration.

“Japanese emigration was significantly fueled by active recruitment and propaganda efforts aimed at addressing overpopulation and poverty in rural Japan, alongside the establishment of ‘emigration companies’ that facilitated the recruitment and transport of emigrants to Brazil,” notes Takeyuki Tsuda in “The Benefits of Being Minority: The Ethnic Status of the Japanese-Brazilians in Brazil.” At the same time, the U.S.—now home to the second-largest Japanese diaspora—was restricting immigration from Japan, making Brazil a more obvious choice. Many immigrants planned to return to Japan after amassing wealth in Brazil, yet they often found themselves trapped in low-paying, restrictive contracts that prevented them from leaving.

Immigrants brought some food items along with seedlings of previously unknown plants to the Americas, such as Fuji apples, persimmons, Ponkan mandarins, and various grapes. However, like chefs developing other migratory cuisines, they primarily utilized the ingredients available in Brazil.

“The cuisine of the early immigrants was defined by adaptation as its key characteristic,” Telma explains. “Confronted with limited access to [Japanese] ingredients, they crafted recipes that evoked their Japanese roots while making use of locally available products.” For instance, they might incorporate green papaya into tsukemono (pickled vegetables) or opt for Brazilian fish in sashimi, not only in São Paulo but also in other regions like the Amazon, where local resources varied. Although they turned to Brazilian ingredients out of necessity, most Nikkei chefs remained dedicated to traditional Japanese cooking, striving to uphold culinary customs amid challenging circumstances.

For many years, non-Japanese Brazilians were largely unaware of these culinary offerings. The local population was slow to embrace Japanese cuisine due to a backdrop of considerable xenophobia against the immigrant community. In the early 20th century, newspapers stoked fears about the newcomers, portraying them as a “yellow peril.” After World War II, a National Constituent Assembly in 1946 approved an amendment that effectively barred Japanese immigrants for years. As a result, Japanese communities largely isolated themselves in areas like São Paulo’s Liberdade.

“As a result, it took longer for immigrants to adapt to Brazilian culinary culture, and vice versa,” states Simone Xirata, founder of JoJo Ramen, a chain of Tokyo-style ramen restaurants in São Paulo, and vice president of the Brazilian Association of Japanese Gastronomy. “However, this perspective has shifted. From my own experience and those around me, we now strive for recognition as Brazilians. This change began with the deeper integration of the Nikkei community into Brazilian society.”

Following the rise of Japanese cuisine in the U.S. during the 1980s, the trend spread to Brazil in the 1990s, leading to a surge of new restaurants serving a range of Japanese dishes, including sashimi, temaki, and sushi. This wave introduced rodízios, or all-you-can-eat sushi establishments, which brought Japanese cuisine into the mainstream. Other styles of Japanese food, once hidden in the streets of Liberdade, such as izakayas, ramen shops, and yakitori bars, began to thrive as well.

The affordable Japanese cuisine that gained popularity in North America and Europe eventually evolved into sophisticated fusion restaurants and high-end omakases. However, Brazil did not develop a high-end Japanese dining scene due to the lack of a supply chain for fresh ingredients from Japan.

“Unlike the U.S., where I previously owned an omakase restaurant [in Miami] with easy access to products, including numerous direct imports from Japan, obtaining ingredients in Brazil has always been more difficult,” explains Japanese Brazilian chef Tadashi Shiraishi (unrelated to Telma Shiraishi), who founded the eight-seat omakase restaurant Kanoe in the Jardins neighborhood. While things are starting to improve, he still lacks full access to various types of sea urchins, fish, and seasonings commonly found in Japanese restaurants elsewhere.

Longstanding indifference from Brazilian diners and inadequate supply chains are no longer hindering chefs like Tadashi and Telma from creating innovative Japanese dining experiences in Brazil. At Kanoe, Tadashi presents a modern culinary style that merges Japanese techniques with local ingredients such as serra Spanish mackerel, yellowtail amberjack, and a variety of herbs and nuts.

“It’s not new for Brazilian ingredients to be incorporated into Japanese cuisine as practiced here. What has changed in recent years is the rise of more technical, well-structured, and ultimately more successful methods,” Tadashi notes. “Neglecting Brazilian ingredients and refraining from experimentation and innovation would be a step backward.”

Chef Uilian Goya also seizes these opportunities. At his intimate restaurant Goya, a notable Japanese Brazilian establishment in the trendy Pinheiros neighborhood that opened in 2022, he combines fish from the Brazilian coast with Japanese varieties and utilizes Kappaphycus seaweed, which is plentiful along Brazil's shores, for his dashi. He also sources wasabi from Minato Wasabi, which began cultivating the root in Brazil in 2021.

“As more guests travel internationally, particularly to Japan, their expectations have increased,” Goya explains. “As a result, chefs are driven to find better products, leading to a grMytour availability of high-quality ingredients, many of which are native to Brazil.”

Goya notes that even traditionally conservative Japanese chefs, who mainly serve the Japanese community, have begun to view Brazilian ingredients differently, shifting from seeing them as a mere necessity to recognizing them as an opportunity. This shift is evident at places like Keito, situated in the same building as the Consulate General of Japan in São Paulo, a favored dining location for Japanese diplomats since 1988. For most of that time, the restaurant has adhered to traditional Japanese cuisine, but chef Nobu Ozaki has recently introduced some Brazilian influences.

“I crafted a dish that features raw blowfish sashimi accompanied by a sauce made from its liver,” he explains. “To introduce a playful element, I incorporated jambu into the sauce, an herb from northern Brazil known for its tingling sensation on the tongue. Initially, this startled some of our Japanese patrons, who mistook it for poison. However, after trying the herb and learning about its effects, they welcomed it, making it a distinctive part of our culinary offerings.”

He continues to explore Brazilian ingredients, including pimenta biquinho (kiss pepper), and increasingly uses local products, such as deep-sea fish.

“São Paulo has a more traditional and deeply entrenched Japanese cuisine than many other countries,” Ozaki acknowledges, but “this tradition highlights the importance of using high-quality ingredients. With improvements in the Brazilian supply chain, we’ve taken the chance to integrate more local products.”

“In numerous areas, such as gastronomy, as well as art, film, advertising, and fashion, Nikkei individuals are thriving,” Xirata states. “This empowerment arises from the community members’ recognition of themselves as Brazilians, fully integrated into the wider Brazilian society, rather than as a separate group.”

As Nikkei residents have increasingly embraced their Brazilian identity, the Japanese government has also changed its stance towards the diaspora community. In 2017, marking a century since the Kasato Maru arrived, Japan launched the Japan House initiative in São Paulo; this museum and community center, with branches in Los Angeles and London, serves as a soft-power tool to promote Japanese culture, including its cuisine.

Xirata notes that following this promotional effort by chefs and government officials, there has been a noticeable increase in interest among non-Japanese Brazilians in Japanese cuisine, as they develop a taste for umami and explore Nikkei dishes specifically. The latest Michelin guide to São Paulo featured eight Japanese restaurants, a blend of traditional omakases and modern Nikkei cuisine, within its 12 one-star selections. She also acknowledges chefs who have integrated Japanese techniques into other culinary styles, further enhancing the popularity and visibility of Japanese food.

“I believe Japanese cuisine has had a far grMytour impact than it has received,” Xirata asserts. “Perhaps it’s now our time to reciprocate and demonstrate that Japanese cuisine is so rich and adaptable that it can incorporate more local flavors as well.”

Rafael Tonon is a journalist and culinary writer based in Brazil and Portugal. He is the author of the book The Food Revolutions.