Yonsei & Gosei

photograph of smiling teenage girl with long dark straight hair wearing red and white striped shirt

Kate Takeda, 2011. Kate is studying science at university. She is actively involved with the Collegiate Championship cheerleading team, participated as a member of the Canadian Nationals Gymnastics Trampoline and Tumbling Competition, and is a recipient of the Nikkei Cultural Society scholarship. Kate is of full Japanese ancestry – considered rare in the fourth generation. Courtesy of Wendy Takeda

The fourth generation of people of Japanese Canadian descent, the Yonsei, is fully integrated in the broader society. Their connections to Japanese culture are limited and mainly involve family gatherings and some traditional celebrations involving their Sansei parents and Nisei grandparents.

Though this generation gets further away from their cultural roots, their ethnicity is written upon their faces and they are still subject to subtle forms of racism and exclusion.

A fifth generation of Japanese Canadians, known as Gosei is now being born.