Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses cultural and human interactions between Japan and Turkey in "micro" of everyday contact. Specifically, it draws attention to how everyday, embodied performances of "Japanese-ness" shape imaginings and articulations of "Japan" in public discourse in Turkey.

Paper long abstract:

Much of the literature on "transnational Japan" and the lived experiences of Japanese overseas has focussed on East/Southeast Asia, Australia, some regions of the Americas, and to a lesser extent, Western Europe. There has been much less attention on Japanese lives in areas like Southern/Eastern Europe and the Middle East. This paper attempts to address this gap by spotlighting Japanese lives in the Eastern Mediterranean, specifically in Turkey.

The paper draws on research on cultural and human interactions between Japan and Turkey in the "micro" spaces and moments of everyday contact. On the surface, the juxtaposing of Turkey and Japan may seem an odd choice of topic, given the geographic distance between the two countries, as well as their (apparently) very different socio-economic and cultural conditions. However, there are in fact areas of historical and socio-economic intersection and commonality between Japan and Turkey, including the ways in which the project of modernity unfolded in both countries. While there is some impressive research by both Turkish and Japanese scholars on the historical relationship between the two countries, most of the work on contemporary interactions is slanted towards the economic or geo-political aspects of the relationship.

My research, however, while situated against the above historical backdrop, draws attention to contemporary cultural and grass-roots interactions. The focus of the project is on the ways individual actors, in spaces of everyday life, can embody and articulate discourses that frame state-to-state relations, in this specific instance, Turkey and Japan. These actors encompass a range of individuals situated in the "contact zones" and "contact moments" between the two countries - Japanese students studying in Turkey, Turkish students studying Japanese or interested in Japan, partners and children of Turkish-Japanese marriages/relationships, business executives, researchers with a stake in the relationship, among others. For the purposes of this paper, however, I focus on the narratives of Japanese (rather than Turkish) informants, and how their everyday, embodied performances of "Japanese-ness" shape and contribute to the imaginings and articulations of "Japan" in public discourse in Turkey.