Issei

American  

[ees-say] / ˈisˈseɪ /

Or issei

noun

• Issei,
  plural
• issei
  plural

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

2. any Japanese immigrant to the U.S.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Issei
  plural
• issei
  plural

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Etymology

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)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Issei issei

The Tokyo-based company plans to establish a U.S. office within the next year that will initially focus on data collection and research and development, Turing Chief Executive Issei Yamamoto said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

Some of the Issei, first generation Japanese immigrants, and Nisei kept their experience in the camps a secret as they didn't want to pass on painful memories to the next generations.

From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2022

Fueling this Issei toil was the dream that birthright citizenship would lift their U.S.-born children, known as Nisei, to secure footing.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2021

At home, the Nishios were active in the Pasadena Union Presbyterian Church, founded by Issei in 1913.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2019

Like so many Issei, he had, for better or worse, run his own businesses, been his own man for too long to tolerate the idea of working for someone else.

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston

The Japanese village centered on the issei, first-generation immigrants, who were master fishers who left imperial Japan in search of work on the West Coast in the early 1900s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2024

The two first-generation immigrants — known in the Japanese diaspora as issei — eventually married.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2023

Hori says others have noted how “unusual” it is for Johnson, who is not of Japanese descent, to be the keeper of a structure that houses so much of the nisei and issei experience.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 27, 2022

Johns says he and other issei artists were left out of the notion of a Northwest School of art, which Callahan had helped form with his writing during the war.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 16, 2021

For the issei, or the first generation of Japanese immigrants to come to the U.S., farming became the biggest economic foundation, especially in California.

From MSNBC ● Mar. 20, 2016

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