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Paper short abstract

This paper explores recent trends in tourism and migration to Japan, using the case of Israe-lis as an example of the interaction between native residents and foreigners in motion, and the way transnational mobility serves to re-evaluate home and attachment, in "real" or imagined Japan and beyond

Paper long abstract

The number of foreign visitors to Japan hit a record high in 2019 and is expected to mount as Tokyo 2020 approaches. It seems that Japan is enhancing its image as an object of fascination and a unique tourist destination, while visitors from Asia and around the world flock there, including growing numbers of visitors from Israel. At the same time, despite its rapidly aging and shrinking population, Japan is reluctant to declare itself an immigrant receiving country (Roberts 2018). The number of non-Japanese residents keeps growing but a sense of multicultural coexistence (tabunka kyōsei) is yet to be achieved (Kibe 2017). Against this background, my paper examines the experience of Israelis who travel to Japan. Following its mounting popularity (a "Japan-Boom"), the number of Israelis entering Japan has nearly tripled in the last six years and consists of heterogeneous groups: from organized tours, to in-dependent tourists, to younger budget-traveller hikers Woofers or couch-surfers in rural Japan, as well as expatriates, foreign students or Israelis married to Japanese partners. To respond to their needs, Hebrew language pamphlets are handed out in tourist sites, new Chabad Jewish centres are mushrooming in large cities (the fourth of which was in 2019), as well as Israeli restaurants and Hebrew speaking guides. Drawing on data obtained from ob-servations, conversations with Israelis as well as Japanese tour-guides travel-agents and other service providers, and analysis of blogs and Facebook groups, I examine inter-cultural encounters and show how a new foreign community is taking shape. The new fluid community negotiates its belonging to the host country as a provisional home, often emotionally dear to the heart, while their motivations and belonging might be questioned by their Japanese counterparts. I demonstrate how they interpret everyday interactions in terms of rejection and attachment to actual or imagined Japan.

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Focusing on Japanese migrants in Singapore, this paper argues that Asianism(s) today is better maintained by Anglophone, multiethnic societies than by a mono-lingual, mono-ethnic nation. Asianism requires the intervention of a Western language and multiethnic policy, which Japan has been lacking.

Paper long abstract

Since early modern times, "being Asian" has played complex roles in Japanese self-identification as well as in governmental politics. The World War II invasion of Japan to other Asian countries was justified under the name of "Asian co-prosperity", which in reality meant Japanization, or mono-lingual and mono-ethnic hegemony. After World War II, "Asia" has never composed a strong identity of the Japanese, both in governmental and individual levels, even if it meant an economic market or tourist spots. After decades of economic growth of Asian neighbors, "Asia" is now ready to affect Japanese self-identification, despite the general indifference among the Japanese in Japan. Also, other parts of Asia are not waiting for Japan to define "Asia". Then, where and in what forms the discourses of "Asia" are earnestly produced today, and how can they affect Japanese self-identification?

Based on the fieldwork on Japanese migrant workers in Singapore, this paper argues that Asianism in the 21st century is better maintained by Anglophone, multiethnic societies than by military force or economic power of supposed mono-lingual, mono-ethnic nations. Here Asianism means "discursive constructs of Asia and their political, cultural and social practices" (Frey and Spakowski 2016: 1). Singapore, a city-state in the size of Metropolitan Tokyo, but a hub of Asian economy, is a model state whose success highly relies on discursive construction of "Asia" and "racial harmony (between different Asian ethnic subgroups)". Its discourses and practices drastically change the self-identification of Japanese migrant workers, who now clearly and positively identify themselves as "Asian".

Paradox is that Asianism in Singapore requires the intervention of a Western language (English); it also requires multiethnic environment, where different "Asian" ethnic groups live in theoretical equality, controlled by a dominant ethnic group (the Chinese). Yet the biggest paradox is that governmental discourses are internalized more deeply by the Japanese migrants than by Singaporeans. Even with these paradoxes, Asianism in Singapore is persuasive enough for the Japanese migrants, who are from a mono-lingual, mono-ethnic country as argued by its statesmen.

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The upcoming Brexit will impact society on many levels. Tens of thousands of Japanese living in London will face uncertain times. My research project examines Japanese trajectories and biographies within this network in times of crisis.

Paper long abstract

By early 2020 the UK will have left the European Union after a long and bitter struggle. Brexit will have many social and economic impacts. One is that tens of thousands of Japanese living in London will face a time of uncertainty. Many of these work for Japanese banks with European headquarters in the City of London. However, the EU has already signaled that it will declare banks in the UK as foreign and thus unable to handle financial transactions within the regime of the Union. Many banks have either withdrawn from London already, scaled down their business there, or are thinking about how to deal with an uncertain future. This affects not only Japanese employees and their families, but also the Japanese shops and institutions that have been catering to their needs.

Most diaspora research until now has considered cases like the Japanese in London as a matter of periphery-centre relations. Thus most publications on this topic only deal with London's local ongoings as well as those between the capitals of the UK and Japan. However, the crisis of Brexit will shed new light on the Japanese diaspora network within Europe. Banks will not withdraw completely, but relocate to banking centers such as Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, or Dusseldorf, taking their Japanese staff along with them. My ongoing research project aims to map the Japanese diaspora network in Europe as Brexit unfolds. Using interviews and participant observation, I examine Japanese trajectories and biographies within this network with the aim of cutting through the problematic binary of periphery and center. As a major crisis within the diaspora network, Brexit offers an opportunity to unveil everyday relations and decisions within this network which would usually be more difficult to uncover.