ARTICLE: "Enclave of Brazilians Tests Insular Japan: Nation Tiptoes Into a Multiethnic Era," by Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times, 2 November 2008.

Cool story about Brazilian-born Japanese lured back to the island for demographic reasons and to-this-day still remaining oddly enclaved.

One big neighborhood where such an enclave exists elicits this weirdly revealing comment from an aged (69) community leader:

To be honest, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that this would ever become a multi-ethnic neighborhood.

Doesn't that line just kill in irony? I mean, the butter-side-up crowd confronted by the alien nature of the butter-side-down bunch!

Oh, to have a star upon thars!

But yeah, demographic realities do that to you.