2018 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Creating parallel society?: Capturing ethnoscape through visual ethnography of South Asians in Japan
| Project/Area Number |
18F18303
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
田中 雅子 上智大学, 総合グローバル学部, 教授 (00591843)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KHAREL DIPESH 上智大学, グローバル・スタディーズ研究科, 外国人特別研究員
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-11-09 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Family migration / South Asia / Visual Ethnography / Social Network / Support Group |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Utilizing a video camera as a primary research tool, I have conducted visual ethnographic research in Tokyo, Gunma, Nagoya and Baglung district in Nepal to document both Nepali immigrants in Japan and their families in Nepal. I have collected more than 150 hours audio-visual footages specifically focusing on Nepali family migration to Japan. This research result indicates that after the migration of wives and children, the Nepali community is now encountering problems of finding suitable housing, appropriate schools for their children, medical treatment, and general social welfare. The language barrier still is the most serious problem among the immigrants in this context. During this research I could also collaborate with my host researcher and gained an opportunity to expand my networks with other potential key research informants for the research, particularly with Japanese citizens, volunteers and supporters who have been supporting the immigrants in their difficult situations; socially, culturally, economically and legally.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
As stated in my research proposal, the research plan was to gain a deeper understanding of the South Asian immigrants in Japan focusing on Nepali cooks’ family migration to Japan, and it has done and collected some empirical data to meet the research goals. Furthermore, I have extended my research to learn about the situation of immigrants’ supporter group in Japan. I could do it because of the well-established network of my host supervisor within immigrants’ community as well as immigrants’ supporter groups.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I will continue my visual ethnographic research on the South Asian family migration to Japan and carry out participant observation through “deep hanging out": seeing, hearing, and making sense of the immigrants’ activities from close proximity, which will provide me with a great opportunity to gather rich ethnographic data and gain a deeper understanding of Nepali family migration and its socio-cultural dynamics in the wider Japanese society. In collaboration with my host supervisor, I will conduct in-depth interviews with Japanese people in different cities who are interconnected with South Asian immigrants. I will also examine the problems that the immigrants are now facing in the host society.
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Research Products
(1 results)
