The Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as or as , comprise the Japanese emigrants from Japan (and their descendants) residing in a country outside Japan. Emigration from Japan was recorded as early as the 15th century to the Philippines, but did not become a mass phenomenon until the Meiji period (1868-1912), when Japanese emigrated to the Philippines and to the Americas. There was significant emigration to the territories of the Empire of Japan during the period of Japanese colonial expansion (1875-1945); however, most of these emigrants repatriated to Japan after the 1945 surrender of Japan ended World War II in Asia.