ANTHROPOLOGY OF JAPAN IN JAPAN (AJJ)
AJJ Spring Workshop
25th-26th April 2009
Host: The Doshisha Centre for Japanese Language and Culture
Theme: Multiethnic Japan
Transnational Migration of Care Workers: A New Phase of Multi-Cultural Japan?
Reiko Ogawa (Kyushu University)
The signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Japan, and the Philippines (2006) and Indonesia (2007) brought a new stage in examining the issues of ‘multi-cultural Japan’. The acceptance of Southeast Asian nurses and caregivers are often referred to as “The Second Opening of the Country” after the revision of the immigration law in 1990 which made the acceptance of Nikkei possible. The decision to accept foreign care workers came out not as part of the immigration policy but as a political decision in order to promote free trade. However, it was the major structural changes in Japanese society, demographic change and social reform, that made it look plausible. Due to drastic decrease in fertility rate, it has been projected that the population of Japan which peaked at 128 million in 2004 will fall to 900 million in 50 years. The decrease in population is combined with the ‘super aging society’ where the population over 65 years shares 21.2% of the total population and will further increase to 30.5% in 2025 (one in three is an elderly!). Responding to this demographic change, an effort to shift care work from the domestic sphere to public sphere was undertaken through the introduction of the Long-term Care Insurance in 2000. In other words, the care work became commodified as paid work and incorporated into the market. On the one hand, this shift had allowed increasing access to welfare services for those who cared elderly at home, but on the other hand, neo-liberal policy restricting expenditures on social welfare defined the value of care work to be low both in social and monetary terms resulting in constant deficit of care workers.
These structural changes were reflected as national anxieties considering the deterioration of the social security system and future care workforce deficit resulting in a strong interest towards acceptance of foreign care workers than ever. So far, the media representation and discussions at public forums remains extremely positive towards the foreign care workers, instead criticizing the Japanese government policy which imposes a condition that is too difficult for them to achieve in order to stay in Japan for a longer period of time. The presentation aims to discuss the local context of reception of globalization of care
work based on the survey conducted at elderly homes where the foreign care givers are working and try to solicit issues that are relevant to policy and practical considerations.
地鎮祭
Sugandhi Aishwarya (Kyoto University)
日本人は無宗教であるとよくいわれる。実際に多くの人は「私は無宗教です」と、迷うことなく答える。だがもし無宗教だというのなら、なぜ日本人は、正月の初詣、七五三参り、彼岸の墓参りなどにいそいそと出かけ、神仏に手を合わせるのだろうか。しかも無宗教だと言いながら、インテリジェントビルの建設にすら、地鎮祭という古くからの祭儀を欠かさない。果たして日本人は無宗教だといえるのだろうか。地鎮祭という儀式を通して、日本人と宗教との関わりを考察していきたい。
地鎮祭は、建物を建てたり、土木工事を始めるときに行われる神道の祭儀である。 産土神やその敷地の守り神に、工事を安全に順調に進めることができるよう、そして建物が末永く安泰堅固であるよう祈願する。 地鎮祭の祭儀をおこなう専門家である春日大社の神職の説明によると、「大地、地面にも神は宿っているのであり、人間の都合で建物を勝手に造っては神の怒りに触れることになる。 だから、神に建設すること伝えて許しを得て工事の安全を祈願し、建物の安泰堅固とそこを使う人の繁栄を祈願するのが地鎮祭をおこなう根本的な意義」であるとされる。 たとえば、『日本の神仏の事典』には次のように記されている。 地鎮祭 建築や土木工事に先立ち、土地の神に奉告し守護を祈願する祭り。 地祭りとも呼ばれる。 『日本書紀』持統天皇五年（六九〇）一〇月に新益京（藤原京）を鎮祭したとあるのが初見。 『延喜式』臨時祭条に鎮新宮地祭があり、祭料のうち鍬・钁（くわ）・鎌が土木作業を象徴しており、金銀・銅鉄・水玉は鎮物と思われる。 践祚大嘗祭式には京の斎場の地鎮祭に童女が斎鎌で草刈初め、ついで忌鍬で穴を掘る所作をする穿ち初めがある。 そののちに鎮物を埋めるが、主に鉄の人形･鏡･刀子で玉を加えることがあるというから新京造営にあたる鎮新宮地祭とほぼ同内容である。 ただし伊勢大神宮式の鎮新宮地祭と所摂の宮の地鎮の料にも玉は含まれていない。 宮地の鎮祭が終わると地祭の物忌が掃き清めて心柱の穴を掘り、禰宜が柱を竪てるとある。 地鎮祭の中心は地を清めて、鎌で草木を薙ぎ払い、鍬で柱穴を掘ることである。 現在は、浄砂を盛って象徴的にこれらの所作を行う。 では、地鎮祭はいつごろから行われているのだろうか。
その歴史は古く飛鳥時代にさかのぼる。『日本書紀』の持統天皇に「使者を遣はして、新益京を鎮ひ祭
らしむ」と初見される。新５年（694 年）益京とは発掘調査により橿原市にその宮跡が見つかっている藤原京のことである。持統天『日本の神仏の事典』大修館書店、2001、p.600
皇は藤原京の建設に際し、使者をつかわして地鎮祭をおこなったと記されている。 地鎮祭が一般庶民にまで広まったのは江戸時代以降のことであるが、1300 年以上の時を経て、今日まで脈々と受け継がれてきたことになる。
From Bulgarian Sour Milk to “Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt” – Opposing Interpretations of Yogurt in a “Mono-cultural” Society ブルガリアのサワーミルクから日本の｢明治ブルガリアヨーグルト｣まで－“単一文化社会”における異なる価値観をめぐって－
マリア・ヨトヴァ (総合研究大学院大学)
日本では、ブルガリア出身であると自己紹介すると、ヨーグルトという食品が必ずといってもいいほど、話題として浮かび上がる。 実際に、日本ではヨーグルトなしではブルガリアを語ることができない。 日本においては、ブルガリアとヨーグルトとの結びつきやブルガリアの肯定的な印象の背景には、明治乳業の定番商品「明治ブルガリアヨーグルト」の役割が大きいに違いない。 しかし、「明治ブルガリアヨーグルト」の誕生に 6 年も先立って、1960 年代後半に、明治乳業と異なる価値観を持つ最重要人物の登場によって、ブルガリアの「サワーミルク」が日本中に広まった。 この人物は、当時衆議院副議長の園田直の妻、園田天光光である。 彼女は、一般大衆が持つ支配的価値観とは一線を画し、独特なライフキャリアを築いている。 一般的に、社会を通して“単一文化社会”と思われている日本において、彼女は異なる価値観を持つ、マージナル・ピープルの一人である。 だからこそ、ブルガリアのサワーミルクに着目し、それを当時日本でもブルガリアでも誰にも見えなかったシンボルに置き換え、日本への道を開いたのである。
Shooting Culture: Proposed Guidelines for Students of the Visual Anthropology of Japan
Steven C. Fedorowicz (Kansai Gaidai University)
As part of the Visual Anthropology of Japan course I teach, I send my students out to photograph “Japanese culture.” Students are to take their own original photographs to illustrate a weekly theme and post photos along with text on an internet blog. While there has never been a problem with the assignment, students have expressed concern about taking photographs in public. Aren’t all shots taken in public fair game? Do we need to ask permission? Do we need a written consent form? Can we snipe photos from afar with our telephoto lens? Can we blur out the faces of individuals we shoot to protect their privacy? In this paper I propose a set of guidelines for students of visual anthropology engaged in photographing Japan, not as a prime directive but rather as a starting point for dialogue and development. Issues of concern brought up in this project include privacy and portrait rights; academic codes of ethics and conduct and photo posting guidelines; regulations pertaining to terms of service of internet blogging and photo/video posting services; information about Fair Use and Creative Commons; and laws in Japan pertaining to photographing in public, privacy and defamation. In this AJJ presentation I wish to solicit the advice and comments of anthropologists who have experience with visual projects in Japan. For more information on this project, see http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/.
PANEL
Education and Multicultural Japan
David Blake Willis, Chairperson
Growing Up Mixed—but not mixed up—in Japan
Penny Kinnear, Ph.D. (University of Toronto, Mississauga)
Over a period of three months in 2003, I asked 20 bi-racial, bi-cultural and sometimes bi-lingual youth between the ages of 12 and 19 to write about their experiences growing up and going to school in Japan. Based on the sociocultural theoretical concept of writing as a mediating activity and Wertsch’s agent-acting-with-a-mediational means, I acted as an editor and the youth as writers. They chose the language, the incidents, and the topics. I will present the issues of language, perception, and constructed and assigned identities that emerged from their writing. I will also briefly discuss the research methodology that used narrative and a writing-editing process to collect the data.
Raising Transcultural Children in Japan A comparative ethnographic narrative from a parent educator
Edward R. Howe (Utsunomiya University)
While Japan is renowned for racial homogeneity and ethnocentrism, there are pockets of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity. Hundreds of thousands of mixed children from international marriages form an increasingly vocal transcultural presence in Japan. As an expatriate Canadian father of three such children, over the past decade, I have experienced their emerging ethnic identities. Thus, my family offers a micro-ethnographic window into the macro-phenomena of cultural hybridity within Japanese schooling and society. In this reflective paper, I analyze elements of transcultural education within Japanese society through a comparative ethnographic narrative lens. Finally, insights into progressive changes in Japanese education and society will be shared from the unique perspective of someone who has worked as an educator for extended periods in Japan since 1990.
International Education for peace: A multicultural challenge for Japanese students, teachers and universities
Koji Nakamura (Konan University)
International education for peace is an invitation for educators and anthropologists to be challenged and enlightened. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the significance of peace education in globalization as part of international and multicultural education for the teaching profession at university level. This is an ethnographic study of nurturing the awareness of peace among students in a multicultural higher education setting in Japan. The results of participant observations and questionnaires administrated to 97 student teachers and 30 foreign exchange students of Konan University, Kobe, Japan, will be discussed based on the author’s international education for the teaching profession in practice from 2003-2009. The paper also discusses the positive response by exchange students from Europe and North America regarding peace education in Japan from hindsight and foresight. For ethnographers and other educators, transnational and transcultural perspectives for human solidarity and coexistence among these students indicate directions for a future Multicultural Japan.
Beyond Ethnicity and Nationality? Diversity and Culture in Korean Schools in Japan
Soo im Lee (Ryukoku University) and David Blake Willis (Soai University)
This paper aims at shedding light on the current status of culture in Korean schools in Japan and the transmission of this culture, or cultures, to their students. That Korean ethnic schools have even survived in the midst of severe discrimination and prejudice from the surrounding Japanese society during the post-war era is an impressive statement of the power of culture. However, the current status of these ethnic schools has gradually changed since 2002, when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) government admitted to a series of abduction cases of Japanese citizens. Blame was shifted towards these Korean ethnic schools and their children. As public sentiment towards North Korea grew negative, these children were verbally harassed in trains and on the streets, and at times, their lives were in danger. Also, they were seriously facing financial difficulties because the support of the DPRK government had stopped. Those who were dissatisfied with the pro-Pyongyang schools opened a new Korean ethnic school, the pedagogical aim of which was said to be the nurturance of students as global citizens rather than emphasizing simply on the narrow sense of Korean ethnicity. This paper will illuminate the roles of culture and diversity among Korean schools and their strenuous efforts dealing with the discriminatory cultural policies of the Japanese government and society.
Cultural Survival and the Tanba Manganese Memorial Museum
Soo im Lee (Ryukoku University) and David Blake Willis (Soai University)
In 1989, Lee Jeong Ho, a first-generation Korean, spent two years building the Tanba Manganese Memorial Museum, assisted by his two sons. Several thousand Koreans were either forcibly brought or recruited to mine the mineral rhodochrosite in the 1930s for military supplies. The mineral is a component of manganese and has uses in battery and railway production. The Koreans who were forcibly brought to the mine were placed in atrocious situations. Many of them died because of the incredibly hard work and many others suffered from lung diseases. Lee wanted to leave the evidence of “Japan as an aggressor” and believed that Japanese government had neglected its responsibility for teaching history. He died of lung disease contracted from work in the mines, and one of his son took over his mission. The government has never helped the family financially, so this project of cultural survival and memory has been run solely through their own support. The total amount of money they have spent so far is about 300 million yen. Lee’s family’s financial burden reached the limit, however, and they announced that the mine would close it in 2009. A new movement was started to maintain the museum by Japanese who believe that the museum would be an important asset to Japan’s multicultural education. Where and how has this collaborative project by Japanese and Zainichi Koreans been representative of memory and cultural survival? In this paper, we will examine the politics and cultural pull of this project from an ethnographic point of view.
Internationalization in Japanese Higher Education: Whose Agenda?
William Bradley (Ryukoku University)
Internationalization as a policy and as a strategy has been a key component in the discourses of higher education reform for the past 10-15 years. But what do we mean by internationalization? Earlier critiques have focused on the nature of internationalization policy in Japan as inoculation, that is, as a strategy on the part of MEXT, business and government leaders to provide international training and sufficient English competency for university students in order to fend off demands that Japan be subject to pressures from the rest of the world. This paper returns to the problem of defining internationalization “at home” and draws on the experiences of two years of working as dean of an international center in a private university to suggest that internationalization strategies in practice are subject to complicated and conflicting subjective understandings of what internationalization means.