Issei

is a Japanese language term used in North America and South America to mean Japanese people who immigrated (moved to another country). The emigrants or immigrants who were born in Japan are called *Issei* and their children born in the new country are called *Nisei* (second generation).  The  of *Issei* are called *Sansei* (third generation).

*Issei* are part of the wider Japanese diaspora. Though *Issei* means "first-generation immigrant", the term is often used specifically to mean the Japanese people who emigrated during the period of the Empire of Japan, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term *Shin-Issei* (“new first generation”) is sometimes used for Japanese people who emigrated after 1945.

## History
[[File:Japoneses no brasil.jpg|thumb|right|The first Japanese-Brazilian (*Nipo-brasileiros*)  immigrants arriving aboard the *Kassato Maru*  in 1908.  They would call themselves *Issei*.]]
The earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants settled in Mexico in 1897.

Immigration to Brazil began in 1908.  Today, the community started by the *Issei* has become the largest Japanese emigrant population outside of Japan, including approximately 1.5 million Brazilians. Other *Issei* started communities in the United States,  Canada,  and Peru.  In the United States and Canada, *Issei* were incarcerated and forced into camps, along with many of their *Nisei* children, during World War II. 

In the 1930s, the term *Issei* came into common use.  The word replaced the term "immigrant" (*ijusha*).  This change in usage reflected changes in the way the *Issei* looked at themselves, including the idea of belonging to the new country.

The *Issei* were born in Japan, and their cultural point-of-view was primarily Japanese; but they were in the Americas by choice.  Their children, grandchildren,  and great-great-grandchildren grew up with a national and cultural point-of-view that was different from their parents.

Although the *Issei* kept an emotional connection with Japan, they created homes in a country far from Japan.

The *Issei,* *Nisei* and *Sansei* generations show very different attitudes to authority, gender, non-Japanese involvement, religious practice, and other matters.

## Select list of notable *Issei* 
:*This list is not finished; you can help Wikipedia by adding to it.*

* Kan'ichi Asakawa (1873–1948), academic, author, peace advocate, historian and librarian
* Midori Goto (1971 - ), *Shin-Issei* (Japanese-born) American violinist, winner of Avery Fisher Prize
* Makoto Hagiwara (1854–1925), landscape designer for San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden, made the fortune cookie popular
* Miki Hayakawa (1899–1953), American modernist painter
* Mazie Hirono (1947 - ), 1st US Senator born in Japan
* Koichi Iida (1888–1973), American businessman, founder of Central Pacific Bank
* Mako Iwamatsu (1933–2006), *Shin-Issei* American actor
* Fujitaro Kubota (1879–1973), American Seattle gardener and philanthropist
* Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889–1953) American painter, photographer and printmaker
* Syukuro Manabe (1931 - ) *Shin-Issei* American Nobel Prize winner (2021),  climatologist and meteorologist
* Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988), American sculptor and landscape architect
* Tomie Ohtake (1913–2015), Brazilian artist
* Yoko Ono Lennon (1933 - ), *Shin-Issei* American artist and musician.
* George Masa (1881–1933), activist in creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
* Yoichiro Nambu (1921–2015), *Shin-Issei* American Nobel Prize winner (2008), physicist
* Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (1950–2025 ), *Shin-Issei* American actor
* Jokichi Takamine (1854–1922), chemist who isolated adrenaline

## Related pages
* Japanese American Internment

## References
## Other websites
* Japanese American National Museum
* Japanese American Historical Society
* Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
* Discover Nikkei