The Japanese district
Subscribe to discover the rest of São Paulo
You are seeing UGO picks, free everywhere. UGO+ unlocks every address in the city, plus its activities and events.
Red lanterns, torii gates, Asian grocery stores and ramen restaurants: Liberdade is the heart of the largest Japanese community outside Japan. At weekends, a food and craft fair sets up on Praça da Liberdade.
The first Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in 1908 aboard the Kasato Maru to work on coffee plantations. Many then settled in Liberdade, later joined by Chinese and Korean communities. The Museum of Japanese Immigration tells that story.
