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Paper short abstract

This paper explores mainland migrants and stray animals on the Japanese Miyako Islands. As a case of multispecies mobility, I introduce the concept “ecologies of care” to argue that care is a political mechanism shaping inclusion and exclusion through the renegotiation of social identities.

Paper long abstract

In this paper, I explore relationships between mainland migrants and stray animals on the Miyako Islands, Japan. Since 2015, Miyako has become a migration destination for Japanese city dwellers who come to be healed (iyashi) by the islands' natural world. As a way of “doing something in return” (ongaeshi suru), the migrant community on these remote islands is greatly involved in caring for Miyako's environments. This reciprocity, however, is selective: environmental projects center on three particular ecological issues—marine debris, agricultural chemicals, and stray cats and dogs—while ignoring others. In the postcolonial context of Miyako, these concerns rest on the widespread belief that locals do not care about nature and that mainlanders possess the moral authority to speak for Miyako's non-human world. Focusing on three migrant-led animal shelters, I explore how stray animals “migrate in reverse” as they are shipped to foster families in metropoles across Japan. I introduce the concept “ecologies of care” to discuss care as a semiotic-material practice that operates across time and space. Drawing on hybrid ethnography, my main argument is that care becomes a political mechanism in the context of multispecies mobility, shaping dynamics of inclusion and exclusion through the ongoing renegotiation of social identities and hierarchies. By providing a case from the Japanese context, I aim to deepen debates within environmental anthropology and beyond on the situatedness of environmental care, its ambiguity, and its complexity in a polarized world.