The Japanese diaspora, and its individual members known as nikkei (日系) or nikkeijin (日系人), are the Japanese immigrants from Japan and their descendants that reside in a foreign country. Emigration from Japan was recorded as early as the 15th century to the Philippines,[38][39] but did not become a mass phenomenon until the Meiji period, when Japanese began to go to the Philippines[40] and the Americas.[41][42] There was also significant emigration to the territories of the Empire of Japan during the colonial period; however, most emigrants repatriated to Japan after the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II in Asia.[43]