Permanent Exhibition

The history of Japanese overseas migration is divided into five periods, with timelines, documents, photographs, and videos showing the important events of each. There is also a three-dimensional world migration map showing the number of migrants from each prefecture of Japan, and sections on topics such as government-sponsored migrants in Hawai‘i, working students, the Aliança Colony in Brazil, and the Nippon Maru, the last emigrant ship.

This corner mainly features replicas of items that played a role in Japanese overseas migration—including posters promoting emigration, guidebooks for emigration, farming equipment, signs, cupboards, and tables full of food—all with the aim of encouraging visitors to think together regarding six questions covering the reasons for emigrating from Japan and the work they did and how they lived in their new countries.

By living their lives in those new lands, Japanese migrants joined and helped create new civilizations there. The exhibit uses full-scale videos, models of colonies, and other items to explain the background and history of the migration and how the migrants worked, lived, and formed communities.

This corner explains the changing circumstances surrounding migrants and other issues, using Brazil as an example.

This corner features interviews with the directors of Nikkei museums outside Japan, Nikkei people active in Japan, and others to explain the ever-diversifying Nikkei people and communities.

Guidance videos are shown on the screen. During special exhibits, the space is open to the public as an exhibit hall.