Section 5 | Anthropology and Sociology | Session 6A, Session
chair: Christoph Brumann (Cologne)
Yuki Shiose (Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada)
In this paper, I aim to describe, based on my ethnographical research, the evolution of educational tendencies in Japan about minority education, especially at the elementary and secondary school level. When we ponder about the subject of minority education in Japan, the general discourse falls into grosso modo two directions. One tends to declare that Japan is one of the rare mono-cultural, mono-racial countries of the world, and the other, on the contrary, claims Japan to be one of the most "open" countries, apt to absorb the cultures of others and open to the globalization. Both stances seem to overlook the importance of the drastic historical transformation of the educational policies and the State of Japan. It is my position that the historical change of the State intervention has a great impact in the molding of the contemporary cultural attitude in Japan. This is apparent for example in the recent debate of moral and historic education, and the creation of new manuals. In this paper, I would like to interpret the attitude of the Japanese toward minorities (including the kikoku-shijo, the New Comers, the descendents of Korean immigrants, etc) from the perspective of the creation of memories, especially using my ethnographical research data and analyzing recent educational policies. I will present the dramatic transformation of the educational policies since the Meiji era (From 1886), through the Second World War during the Showa era, up to actual Heisei era, in order to understand the place of minorities in the education of the contemporary Japan.
Mary Jane Garcia (Ritsumeikan University of Asia and the Pacific, Beppu)
Using fieldwork interviews, this paper focuses on the narratives and life stories of Filipino migrants who stay and work illegally in Japan. It analyzes the experiences of migrants in Japan with an emphasis on the effects of illegal migration on the individual migrants themselves and their families. On an individual level, it aims to examine the processes of migration, including the decision to come to Japan, the reasons for staying here illegally and the implications of these actions to migrant's identities, and their families in the Philippines. Some points I will explore in this paper are: a) how migrants illegally staying and working in Japan for between three and eight years define family, family relationships and responsibilities; b) how they recall memories of their country, their families or children; c) how relationships are maintained through time and space and; d) the coping mechanisms these migrants employ in trying to keep the memories of their loved ones in the Philippines alive.
Hirochika Nakamaki (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka)
There are about 1,8 million foreigners (1.5% of the total population) living in Japan. The social construction of their time must be based on at least two different cycles of annual celebrations. Calendars used by the foreigners show national holidays and specific days for these events. In reference to the collected multicultural calendars, such as Korean, Chinese, Brazilian and Muslim calendars, I would like to discuss the comparative construction of time among the foreign people in Japan. It is officially reported that some 270,000 Brazilians (mostly Nikkei) are living in Japan. Most of the sojourners work hard during the week, but they seem to enjoy the weekend as an extension of Brazilian life. Spending long time with friends in a plaza, watching football games of their homeland on TV, and eating together with relatives and guests are some examples. The Japanese society is slowly shaping itself toward multiethnic direction. It is hoped that the analysis of multiethnic calendars and related field research may open a new path for the advancement of "Japan Anthropology."