Liana Nakamura
Liana Nakamura was born in “persimmons land,” Mogi das Cruzes (Sao Paulo, Brazil), in 1994. Between Japan and Brazil, she became a librarian specialist in Diversity and Inclusion. She is the author of the book amarela-manga: a Japanese-Poetic Anthology (Corsália.estúdio, 2023).
Winner of the Nikkei Literary Award (Manga) from the Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture and Social Assistance - Bunkyo (2021), the ARA Cultural Korean Literature Video-Review Competition (2022), and the 37th edition of the Yoshio Takemoto Award (Poetry) from Nikkei Bungaku Literary Magazine (2023). She is also part of the poetry collection Literature’s Off-FLIP (2024).
Updated October 2023
Stories from This Author
Between Two Kanji
Oct. 25, 2023 • Liana Nakamura
“Nikkei” means Japanese descendants born outside Japan. Once I taught a Japanese student at an International School and she told me I was different from her, I was a “Nikkei-jin,” a “person from the country of the Nikkei.” Indeed, growing up Nikkei means existing between two very different worlds. Within two kanjis. Going back and forth between Brazil and Japan, Japan and Brazil. In Brazil, to be Nikkei is to be Japanese-Brazilian. Japanese and Brazilian at the same time. How …
