Japanese people in Belgium
Ethnic group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Japanese people in Belgium or Japanese Belgians (Japanese: 日系ベルギー人) are Belgian citizens of Japanese ancestry.
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| |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 4,931 (2017) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Dutch | French | German | Japanese | |
| Religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Overseas Japanese |
History
The Japanese started to arrive in considerable numbers in Brussels in the 1950s. At this time the Belgian-Japanese economic partnerships had started. By 1992, the Brussels Japanese community was already one of the largest in Europe.[1]
In Hasselt there is a Japanese garden, donated to the Flemish city by the city of Itami, Japan.[2][3] It is the largest Japanese garden in Western Europe, extending for 2.5 hectares.[4] There are other Japanese gardens in Belgium, such as the one in the city of Ostend.[5][6] There is a good relationship between the city of Ostend and the Japanese company Daikin, located in the industrial area of Ostend, and whose company buildings can be seen along the Ostend-Brussels highway.[7] In Laeken, Brussels, there is a Japanese tower, built between 1900 and 1904 by order of King Leopold II.[8][9] Also in Brussels there is a Japanese international school, the Japanese School of Brussels, founded in 1979[10] over a Japanese Saturday school opened in 1974.[11] In Auderghem, near the Japanese School, there is a street named Avenue Nippone ("Nipponic Avenue"—Nippon means "Japan" in Japanese),[12] opened and named thus in 1986, due to its proximity to the school.[12] There are Japanese magazines published for Japanese Belgians.[13]
Demographics
As of 2021 there were about 6,000 Japanese living in Belgium.[14] In 2016 there were 2,754 Japanese in Brussels alone.[1] In 2016, most (71%) of the Brussels Japanese lived in the southeast of the Brussels Region, more precisely in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Auderghem and Watermael-Boitsfort.[1] 62% of the Japanese community in Belgium lives in Brussels.[1]
The Japanese community of Belgium was by 1992 one of the largest in Europe.[1] The number of Japanese in Belgium is currently stagnating compared to the rising numbers of other Asian nationalities such as the Chinese and Indians.[1]
Notable people
- Yumi Lambert (1995), model[15]
