Abstract
This article describes three newcomer Brazilian children's strategies for surviving identity politics and their
crosscultural adjustment in a Japanese elementary school. Data analysis from a three-year ethnographic research in
Nagano Prefecture suggests that two key factors influenced these children's acculturation in the school: specifically, 1)
interpersonal identity, in which the students constructed positive senses of themselves as they participated in social
groups and built reciprocal relationships with other co-members; and 2) intra-minority politics, in which the students
constructed positive senses of themselves by either associating themselves with or differentiating themselves from
other students who were also different from the mainstream. The analysis shows how the three Brazilian boys
actively took control of their identities and struggled to create positive senses of themselves. Futhermore, the agency
displayed by the students illustrates the need for theories that do not rely solely on cultural mismatches or institutional
assimilation pressures. These Brazilian students managed to integrate socially and advance academically by
creatively using the skills and identity resources available to them, thus showing how the supposedly homogenous and
homogenizing Japanese educational system can in fact serve ethnic minority children. The article ends by suggesting
some options to empower such newcomer foreign students by maximizing advantages of community-oriented Japanese
classroom practices.
