| Project/Area Number |
22K01095
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 04030:Cultural anthropology and folklore-related
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| Research Institution | Gifu University |
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Principal Investigator |
JG Russell 岐阜大学, 地域科学部, 非常勤講師 (90262740)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2022-04-01 – 2026-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2024)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,160,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥960,000)
Fiscal Year 2024: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
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| Keywords | black diaspora / race / mukokuseki / dual heritage / colorism / representation / diversity / intersectional racism / intersectionality / social media / blackness |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
This project investigates: 1) the evolution of Afro-Japanese encounters through an examination of Japanese constructions of blackness and identification of the changes they have undergone as a result of demographic changes in Japan; 2) the impact of social media on representations of Japanese and people of African descendant.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I spent the research period collecting and reading primary and secondary sources on the topic and conducting interviews with African-descendant residents in the Kanto and Kansai regions. I conducted audio-taped, in-person interviews with 16 persons (8 men and 8 women) from June 2024 to March 2025. Each interview averaged about 90 minutes. In addition to in-person interviews, I: (1) monitored social media platforms for videos that discussed the experiences of African-descendant and dual-heritage Black Japanese individuals, (2) collected published memoirs written by such individuals, including those interviewed for this project, and (3) monitored Japanese and Anglophone (JA) online forums for discussions of Black representation in cosplay, manga/anime, video games, including the ongoing controversy surrounding the inclusion of Yasuke, an African brought to Japan by missionaries in the 16th century who is believed to have become a samurai in the service of Oda Nobunaga in the video Assassin's Creed Shadows, and online advertisements, particularly cosmetic surgery and orthodontal advertisements.
Moreover, as online machine Japanese translation becomes increasingly available, Japanese blogs/vlogs feature translations of English articles originally posted on Anglophone websites about race that are used to generate commentary on Japanese websites. The reverse is true of Anglophone websites. The discourse generated has provided an opportunity to examine the intersectionality and replication of racial discourse as it navigates international boundaries via the medium of AI.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
While the collection of primary and secondary sources and the monitoring of online forums, blogs, videos, and vlogs concerning the experiences of African-descendant people in Japan has proceeded smoothly, there was a delay in conducting in-person interviews with all the individuals who responded to my initial query for participants. This was largely due to: 1) a lack of a follow-up response from those who had initially expressed an interest in being interviewed for the project and 2) an inability to coordinate a schedule for in-person interviews due to scheduling conflicts.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
As I mentioned in "Summary of Research Achievements," 16 people were interviewed, primarily in the Kanto and Kansai areas. The original plan was to have greater regional diversity, as well as a larger representation of mixed-roots Black Japanese participants. Presently, there remain 20 people who responded to the initial query and expressed an interest in being interviewed for the project that I have yet to interview. Currently, I am arranging their interview schedules. I also plan to increase the number of mixed-roots interviewees. Follow-up interviews are also planned with selected interviewees. It is anticipated that the number of interviewees will increase as word of mouth spreads.
Transcription of the previously conducted interviews is currently underway.
Additionally, I am currently working on two research papers based on the project, one of which is currently under peer review.
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