Issei

[ees-sey]

noun, plural Is·sei or is·sei.

a Japanese person who immigrated to the U.S. or Canada after 1907 and was not eligible until 1952 for citizenship.
any Japanese immigrant to the U.S.

Origin of Issei

1935–40; < Japanese, equivalent to is first + sei generation (earlier it-sei, it-seĩ < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese yì one + shēng birth)

c.1930s, term used among Japanese immigrants for first-generation immigrants, in Japanese, literally "first generation," related to ichi "one."