- Convenors:
-
Celia Spoden
(German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) Tokyo)
Aaron Hames (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Iza Kavedzija (University of Cambridge)
Harry Walker (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Send message to Convenors
- Discussant:
-
Isaac Gagne
(German Institute for Japanese Studies)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Anthropology and Sociology
Short Abstract
This panel examines loneliness in Japan through more-than-human relationships. Drawing on ethnographic research, we explore how connections with plants, objects, and technologies cultivate belonging and meaningful relations beyond conventional human-centered notions of sociality.
Long Abstract
Social isolation refers to an objective state of limited social contact, which may or may not be accompanied by loneliness—the subjective feeling of lacking meaningful social connections. Conversely, loneliness can afflict individuals who are surrounded by others yet do not perceive their relationships as sufficiently plentiful or meaningful. Loneliness has been described as part of the human condition and inspires a multitude of creative practices to mitigate or avoid such feelings. However, loneliness’s chronic manifestation and apparent increase have recently become recognized as a growing social problem in many societies. Research links loneliness to a variety of social and health issues, such as mental illness, shorter lifespans, and even political extremism. This heightening awareness of the harms associated with loneliness has prompted governments to take action. For instance, Japan appointed a Minister for Loneliness and Social Isolation in 2021 to collect data and to develop countermeasures.
Japan has been characterized as a bondless (muen) or lonely society, attributing an increase in loneliness to structural changes and social transformations that contribute to feelings of being unseen, unneeded, or not cared for by others. These depictions focus on human-human or human-community/society relations, positioning human sociality as exceptional. While recognizing the importance of such approaches, our panel broadens the perspective by examining how relationships with more-than-human entities can cultivate belonging and meaningful life. Drawing on our ethnographic projects in Japan, we explore how humans form meaningful relationships with or mediated through plants, objects, or technologies. Our papers address questions such as: Can relationships with hydrangea, electronic toys, or an unoccupied house be considered social? How do daily rituals of urban gardening and aquascaping function as world-making practices that cultivate more-than-human networks and harmonious coexistence? And how do remotely controlled robots mediate sociality, expand the social worlds of homebound individuals, and foster their sense of belonging?
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
Based on fieldwork and interviews in Tokyo’s OriHime café, I explore how avatar robots mediate sociality for homebound individuals. I examine how remote work through avatar robots creates belonging and agency, while showing that emancipatory potential depends on integration into social practices.
Paper long abstract
People who struggle to leave their homes due to disability or chronic illness often face limited opportunities to connect with society. Their social contacts primarily consist of family members, caregivers, and medical professionals, whereas opportunities to shape daily routines, build social networks, and plan for the future remain constrained. While limited social contact does not necessarily result in loneliness, experiencing loneliness is often tied to a sense of not contributing to society, feeling unneeded, or lacking future prospects.
In Japan, the Ory Laboratory introduced an avatar robot, OriHime, in 2012 to address the social isolation and loneliness of homebound individuals. Unlike social companion robots, this remotely controlled device functions as an alter ego, connecting homebound people with society and bridging physical distance. Initially, OriHime was used primarily by people with disabilities and chronic illnesses to spend time with family and friends, or by hospitalized students to attend school and stay connected with peers. In 2021, the Ory Laboratory opened a café in Tokyo where adults who face difficulties leaving home for various reasons can work remotely and serve customers through OriHime.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the café and interviews with individuals who work through OriHime, I examine how the avatar robot mediates sociality. Through my interlocutors’ perspectives on work and social participation, I explore how avatar robots create new opportunities for belonging and contributing to society, expand social worlds, enable or restore agency, and foster a more positive outlook toward the future. At the same time, I demonstrate that these positive experiences depend heavily on how avatar robots are integrated into everyday social practices, highlighting that the emancipatory potential of avatar robots can be undermined when they are deployed within digital capitalist logics of productivity and extraction.
Paper short abstract
This paper explores relationships older people in Japan cultivate with things, plants, and place. While social relationships and loneliness are conventionally understood in terms of bonds among people, this paper suggests that notions of sociality can be expanded to nonhuman entities.
Paper long abstract
Starting with Durkheim and Weber, social relationships have long been understood as bonds between people. Consequently, loneliness is commonly defined as distress in relation to a lack of human bonds. Human sociality is thus exceptional. However, such an approach omits the potential for meaningful social relationships with the other entities, including objects, nonhuman organisms, seasons, and place. In a broad sense, taking human social relationships as categorically different applies a very specific, culturally embedded perspective about what counts as social to cultures across the globe, including Japan. This paper provides a counterpoint. Through an exploration of the ways older people in Japan relate to hydrangea, electronic toys, and an unoccupied house, this paper takes up the question of whether relationships with nonhuman entities can be understood as social. Whereas nonhuman entities may bear symbolic associations to former owners or lubricate social interaction with others, I argue, others may gain meaning despite not serving as a conduit to other people. People can and do form deep, durable social connections with the nonhuman world, finding companionship with a variety of entities that elude conventional human-based definitions of social. Through these cases, I suggest an expansion of the notion of a social relationship to include entities beyond the human, situating sociality in how people understand and relate to their own local social worlds.
Paper short abstract
This paper compares urban gardening in Osaka and underwater aquascaping, showing how caring for plants and creating miniature ecosystems helps mitigate loneliness. These practices offer structure, beauty, and social or contemplative spaces, fostering connection in more-than-human worlds.
Paper long abstract
How do small, everyday rituals of tending to plants create meaningful worlds? In this paper we compare two distinct practices of cultivation: urban gardening in pots on doorsteps; and small-scale underwater gardening, or aquascaping. For many older residents of Osaka, growing vegetables in narrow urban alleyways, in pots lined up along doorsteps, bridges pleasure and necessity, cultivation and self-cultivation in more-than-human networks of care. Taking care of plants can help give a sense of structure to the day, offer the pleasure of observing growth, and create opportunities for sociality. Aquascaping, meanwhile, embodies ideals of harmonious coexistence amidst carefully arranged layouts that often incorporate aesthetically pleasing assemblages of stone, driftwood, sand and soil in order to replicate natural habitats and ecosystems. For practitioners, these miniature worlds figure as calm spaces of refuge in which the attention is inexorably concentrated on a form of interspecies coexistence sustained through relatively constant, ritualised forms of care and attention.