Japanese people in Germany


There is a community of Japanese people in Germany consisting mainly of expatriates from Japan as well as German citizens of Japanese descent.

Demographics

In 1932 Berlin was the home of about 20% of all of the Japanese people in Europe and Germany had become a centre for Japanese people sent by the Japanese Ministry of Education to study in Europe. In 1936 the Japanese people were declared Honorary Aryans by the Nazis. At the time of the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor about 300 Japanese people lived in Berlin. Around that time fewer than 200 Japanese women and children previously in Germany returned to Japan by ship. They boarded the Yasukunimaru, a ship operated by NYK Line, in Hamburg.
In 1963 there were 800 Japanese people in Hamburg, including 50 children.
In 1985 there were about 16,500 Japanese persons living in West Germany. The largest group, making up about 6,000, resided in Düsseldorf, and there were other Japanese communities in Berlin and Hamburg. At this time, over 90% of ethnic Japanese households in West Germany had an affluent corporate executive as the head of the household. This executive often stayed in Germany for three to five years, and company employees arriving in Germany often move into residences formerly occupied by those returning to Japan.

Tourism

In 1975, 195,350 Japanese people visited West Germany. In 1984 that figure was about 400,000.
Today Germany has about 700,000 Japanese tourists per year and is one of the popular tourist countries to Japanese people. Most popular destinations of Japanese people are Berlin, Black Forest, Bremen, Cologne Cathedral, Dresden, Freiburg, Heidelberg Castle, Munich, Neuschwanstein Castle and Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Institutions

There are few Japanese institutions in Germany. The largest one is the Japanese Culture Institute in Cologne which is owned by Japan Foundation. It was made in 1969 at the time of West Germany. Other known Japanese centers in Germany are the German-Japanese Center and Ekō-House of Japanese Culture in Düsseldorf, Japanese-German Center in Berlin and Japanese Culture Center in Frankfurt. There are also German-Japanese society in each federal states and mostly in its largest cities.
There are also few German museums that has associations with Japan, including Bonsai Museum in Düsseldorf, Japan Art - Gallery Friedrich Müller in Frankfurt, Japanese Palace in Dresden, Mitsuko Castle in Thürkow, Mori Ōgai Memorial Hall in Berlin, Museum Five Continents in Munich, Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, Samurai Museum in Berlin and Siebold Museum in Würzburg.
There are also many Japanese festival in Germany. The largest of its theme is the Japan Day in Düsseldorf which take place in May or June every year and has visitors of over 600,000. Japan Day features the sale of Japanese foods, drinks, materials and goods, with many stands located on the Rhine river with a firework in the late evening. There are also known Japanese festivals including the Cherry Blossom Festival in Hamburg, German-Japanese Summer Festival in Hanover, Japanfest in Munich, Japanese Light Festival Dortmund, in Main Matsuri in Frankfurt. Also many Japanese film festivals in Germany, the largest one is Nippon Connection in Frankfurt and many Japanese convention, most of them are associated with manga and Cosplays, including AnimagiC in Mannheim, Connichi in Kassel, Contaku in Magdeburg and NipponCon in Bremen.

Education

There are five nihonjin gakkō in Germany:
The Toin Gakuen Schule Deutschland, a Japanese boarding high school/gymnasium in Bad Saulgau classified as a shiritsu zaigai kyōiku shisetsu was scheduled to close in 2012.
Hoshū jugyō kō include:

Notable individuals

Fictional people