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- Convenor:
-
Liliana Morais
(Temple University Japan Campus)
Send message to Convenor
- Section:
- Anthropology and Sociology
- Sessions:
- Friday 27 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
This panel deals with the often overlooked issue of contemporary Western migration to Japan from a qualitative perspective. We will discuss how Western images of Japan and Japanese images of Westerners are acquired, negotiated and contested through the migrants' lived experiences in the country.
Long Abstract:
Western migration to Japan has a long history. After the first contact with Europe in the 16th century, the Meiji government implemented a policy of modernization based on Western models, inviting Western nationals to come to the country to assist in its transformation into a modern nation. Fast-forward to today, even though the majority of foreign residents in Japan come from other Asian countries, non-Asians still represent 7% of all migrants in the country, with 2.9% being from Europe and 2.8% from North America (Ministry of Justice, 2017). Yet, despite their presence in the media, Westerners in Japan are still perceived as belonging to a privileged English-speaking cosmopolitan expatriate community.
As the issue of immigration to Japan is becoming increasingly debated, it seems imperative to offer an in-depth qualitative analysis of the motivations, trajectories, and experiences of Western migrants in Japan, which is still lacking in Japanese studies and migration research. The rise of international tourism and the creation of different visa categories, such as working holiday or cultural-activities visa, has blurred mobility with migration. Furthermore, the increased visibility of Japan on the international stage, boosted by the Cool Japan program that took hold from 2010 and the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has contributed to drawing people attracted by its popular and traditional culture to the archipelago.
This panel goes beyond the dichotomy between economically-motivated migrants and international cosmopolitan elites by focusing on the increased diversity of Western contemporary migration to Japan. Through the different papers in this panel, we will see how Western images of Japan are appropriated and contested in the context of the migrants' lived experiences in the country. We will delve into the lifestyle aspirations and cultural motivations for migration, which sometimes arise from particular transnational trajectories of images of Japan abroad. Also, we will investigate how migrants negotiate their identities in between foreignness and Japaneseness and between tradition and modernity by giving different meanings to their experiences. Finally, we will see how white Western migrants negotiate Japanese perceptions of them as cosmopolitans in their longing for integration and assimilation.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 27 August, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This qualitative study examines how images of cosmopolitanism and their association with whiteness in Japan shape white migrants' employment experiences. Despite the influx of (white) migrants, ambivalence towards whiteness is lasting. The presentation assesses migrants' and society's role in this.
Paper long abstract:
Japan used to be restrictive in terms of labour migration. In the past decade, however, the country has rapidly opened its labour market for 'skilled' migrants and has attracted foreign graduates from a diversifying range of countries, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. One group among them are young Europeans with or without Japanese language skills who hope to establish life and career in the country's economic center Tokyo. Using qualitative data of mostly white Europeans within the first few years of corporate employment, this paper critically examines how images of cosmopolitanism and skills shape these migrants' work experiences and as a consequence their social embeddedness in Japan. The young Europeans are aware of the lasting association of whiteness with accomplishment cosmopolitansim. Some of them strive to differentiate themselves from these images by 'turning Japanese'. Yet, their efforts often lead to alienation whereas others feel forced to rely on their foreignness in order to succeed on the job and navigate life in Japan. These observations call for the deconstruction of what it means to be white - as a migrant on a definite working visa in Tokyo but also in the larger context of gradually diversifying contemporary Japan.
The presentation critically analyses how amidst the heightened presence of white people as students, tourists, labor migrants and permanent residents in Japan, the way the young European labor migrants are received and perceived by the labor market and society at large is intrinsically connected to the ambivalent meaning of whiteness in contemporary Japanese society. The migrants themselves are not passive either but constitute critical actors in both the perpetuation and contestation of the peculiar role whiteness assumes. Drawing on the concept of 'cosmopolitan whiteness' (Saraswati 2010), the discussion attempts to offer some answers to the puzzle of the lasting power of orientalist and racialized images at a time when Japan has finally been acknowledged to be a country of immigration (Liu-Farrer 2020).
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to explore various meanings of Japan as a destination and the meanings of migration for contemporary European migrants in Japan. Based on an interview survey, the paper analyzes the rationalization of the migration and subjective identifications of migrants.
Paper long abstract:
This paper aims to explore various meanings of Japan as a destination and meanings of migration for contemporary European migrants to Japan on the backdrop of increasing volume and diversity of this migration. The study will draw on the author's long-term qualitative research on European residents in Japan and an on-going interview survey concerning choices of staying or leaving Japan by European migrants. This survey focuses mainly on middle-class, non-expat Europeans residing mainly in Kansai and Kanto regions.
The paper focus on the question of how is the migration to Japan rationalized by the migrants themselves? First, the aim is to explore the various meanings that Europeans associate with Japan as a migration destination. Whereas culturally motivated migrants - as an alternative to economic motivations - were discussed earlier (Fujita 2009, Debnar 2016), arguably the concept of lifestyle migration (Benson & O'Reilly 2009) provides more flexibility to account for a wider range of meanings and factors (including economic and cultural) for choosing Japan as a destination. Importantly, by analyzing narratives of choosing Japan as well as those regarding reasons to stay (or leave), this paper sees migration as an ongoing project rather than a one-off decision allowing for a more complex and nuanced understanding of the meanings of Japan and migration motivations.
Secondly, what type of mobility do the individual migrants associate themselves with? As argued elsewhere, the middle-class European migrants tend to disassociate themselves from the expatriates (Debnar 2016). However, the combination of positive views of the West and whiteness (e.g., Tanabe 2008) on one hand and negative connotations of the word (im)migration in the case of Japan (e.g., Roberts 2019) on the other, leave the question of self-identification of these Europeans without an easily assumed category. Analysis of the relevant word usage in the general discourse on Japan and their experience as migrants as well as in particular discourse about their understanding of their position as migrants will be conducted.
Paper short abstract:
This paper draws on the life-story accounts of Western nationals who came to practice ceramics in Japan from the 1960s until today. We will see how artists negotiate cultural imaginings of Japan and traditional crafts with their bodily experiences in their communities of reception.
Paper long abstract:
This paper draws on the life-story accounts of Western nationals who have come to practice ceramics in rural areas of Japan from the 1960s until today. Captived by cultural imaginings centered on craftsmanship and spirituality disseminated from the mid-nineteenth century, Western artists and intellectuals have often seen Japan as a repository of pre-modern traditions, searching in the culture of the "Other" for something beyond the normative patterns of their societies.
Entering the country with a variety of visa categories, goals, and motivations, their trajectories reveal the lifestyle and cultural orientations in contemporary migration, which are still poorly studied from the West to Eastward direction. Furthermore, studies on international migration to Japan have often focused on the dichotomy between low-skilled workers and cosmopolitan elites based on metropolitan areas. This paper aims to add to Japan and migration studies by looking at the personal trajectories and subjective experiences of Western ceramic practitioners living and working in traditional rural crafts communities around the country.
We will look at how contemporary Western migrants practicing ceramics in rural areas around the country negotiate romanticized images with their everyday bodily experiences in their communities of reception, where many engaged in more or less traditional craft apprenticeships. While some experienced a disconnect between ideal and reality, others have found in the possibility of ceramic practice in those communities a source of well-being, self-fulfillment, and self-realization. We will see how images of Japan transmute from nostalgia to utopia through the subjects' alternative modes of living and working that envision utopian futures.