Gosei (Japanese diaspora)

Gosei (五世) is a Japanese diasporic term used in countries, particularly in North America and in South America, to specify the great-great-grandchildren of Japanese immigrants (Issei). The children of Issei are Nisei (the second generation). Sansei are the third generation, and their offspring are Yonsei. The children of at least one Yonsei parent are called Gosei.

The character and uniqueness of the Gosei is recognized in its social history. The Gosei are the subject of on-going academic research in the United States and Japan.

History
The earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants settled in Mexico in 1897. Today, the four largest populations of Japanese and descendants of Japanese immigrants live in United States, Canada, Brazil and Peru. Gosei is a term used in these geographic areas outside Japan. Gosei characterizes the child of at least one Yonsei (fourth generation) parent. Differences among these national Gosei developed because of the varying historical processes through which their Japanese emigrant forebears became Nikkei.

Gosei in the US
The lives of Japanese-Americans of earlier generations contrasts with the Gosei because they have English-speaking grandparents. According to a 2011 columnist in The Rafu Shimpo of Los Angeles, "Younger Japanese Americans are more culturally American than Japanese" and "other than some vestigial cultural affiliations, a Yonsei or Gosei is simply another American."

Gosei in Canada
Japanese-Canadian Gosei are entirely acculturated, as is typical for any ethnic group.

Gosei in Peru
Japanese-Peruvian (Nipo-peruano) Gosei make up less than 1.0% of the Nikkei population in 2000. They are represented by the Asociación Peruano Japonesa.

Gosei in Brazil
Japanese-Brazilians (Nipo-brasileiro) make up the largest Japanese population in South America, numbering an estimate of less than 242,543 (including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity), more in the 1.8 million in the United States. The Gosei are a small part of the ethnic minority in that South American nation in the last decades of the 20th century. In 1990, 0.8% of the Nipo-Brasileiros community were Gosei.

Generations
The term Nikkei (日系) encompasses all of the world's Japanese immigrants across generations. In North America, the Gosei are among the heirs of the "activist generation" known as the Sansei.