between Japan and Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They introduce a group of several hundred people in Seville, Spain, whose last names are Japón (“from Japan”). According to Abraham and Serradilla-Avery, these people are descendants of samurai who relocated there in the early seventeenth century when political circumstances made it impossible for them to return to Japan. These “hidden people” of the Japanese diaspora are now attempting to use their distant ethnic heritage to socioeconomic advantage as growing Japanese tourism gives them new ethnic identities and economic benefits.
In chapter 6, Millie Creightonaddresses issues of hegemonic power and networks among Nikkei communities around the globe. She discusses what it means to be a person of Japanese descent in the twenty-first century. She reports on how people of Japanese ancestry in a dozen nations are attempting to create a global pan-Nikkei identity (while exploring the hotly contested term “Nikkei” itself). She analyzes the process of negotiating and constructing a collective Nikkei cultural identity worldwide. By regularly attending an important longstanding international Nikkei conference (the biannual COPANI meetings), she discovered that Nikkei cultural identity is being reshaped, not only through recognition of historical experiences, but also through discourse about both their shared historical and contemporary experiences. She shows that Nikkei people, then, are hardly socially, politically, economically, or culturally monolithic.
In Part III (Nikkei in Japan), Rafael Reyes-Ruiz, in chapter 7, explores how Latin American Nikkei construct and reconstruct their identities in Japan. He argues that being part of a minority, Latin American Nikkei dekasegi laborers try to establish bonds only with each other and attempt to define themselves as Latins rather than Nikkei. The balmy tropical images many Japanese hold of Latin American nations are generally positive. Many Latin American Nikkei attempt to exploit this positive image for their own benefit and survival, stressing their Latin temperament and personality as they try to clearly distinguish themselves from Japanese in the entertainment industries and media. For example, they often wear colorful clothing, listen to Latin salsa music, and dance the