Mobile Japanese Migrants to the Pacific West and East

Etsuko Kato is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the International Christian University, Tokyo. Her research interests include nationalism, gender, and mobilities. Her publications include The Tea Ceremony and Women’s Empowerment in Modern Japan and its Japanese edition, and two books on self-searching migrants (in Japanese).

• Part 1: What is self-searching migration? A postmodern phenomenon 1. What is meant by self-searching? 2. Self-work identification 3. Self-searching migration in late modernity Part 2: Who are self-searching migrants? Japanese self-searching sojourners in Canada and Australia 4. True self, true work: the background stories 5. Blurring boundaries: youth and adulthood, work and holiday, sojourning and immigrating 6. Nationalism, corporate-centrism, and the immobility of Japanese men Part 3: Post-self-searching in the Pacific East? 7. “Asian” and “mobile worker”: new forms of identification in Singapore Conclusion: self-searching within domestic and global power imbalances

‘Etsuko Kato is one of the few Japanese anthropologists who can narrate her country for an international audience. Cutting across diverse fields of study, this lucidly written book is a must read for understanding Japan’s “post adolescents” in a global, postindustrial, and postmodern context.’Takami Kuwayama, Professor Emeritus, Hokkaido University, Japan‘Etsuko Kato has been researching Japanese migrants around the world in search of self for two decades now; I am excited to see this exploration of a migration phenomenon today that is both global and particularly Japanese. This is our new world—'Gordon Mathews, Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong‘In her research spanning different continents, Kato advances youth and mobilities studies, elucidating the sense of self and work identity among unconventional Japanese migrants, which will resonate with challenges facing young people from other cultures in today’s increasingly globally mobile world.’Leng Leng Thang, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore