Organizer and Convener: Cornelia Reiher, Freie Universität Berlin

This workshop brings together scholars from Europe and Japan to discuss the growing diversity of migration to and mobility within rural Japan. It focuses on the increasing presence of both domestic and foreign migrants in Japan’s countryside, including foreign workers, urban-rural migrants, participants in government-sponsored programs such as the JET Program and the Chiiki okoshi kyōryokutai, marriage migrants, and artists who settle in rural areas for varying periods of time. The presentations explore how migrants navigate rural spaces and infrastructures, how migration is shaped by different forms of governance and mobility, and how questions of belonging, and temporality emerge in the context of rural Japan. Together, the contributions shed light on the diverse pathways that bring migrants to Japan’s countryside and on the ways in which migration is transforming rural communities and their social and institutional landscapes.

You can participate in person or online via Webex. Please register by August 25 by emailing japanologie@geschkult.fu-berlin.de. You will then receive the Webex link.

You can find the abstracts for each talk and bios for the speakers here. 

Program

 

14:00                    Introduction

                               Cornelia Reiher

 

14:15                    Panel 1: Foreign workers in Japan’s countryside

 

“Scrolling Toward Tokyo, Landing in the Village: Northeast Indian Careworkers and the Rural Reality of Japan”

Megha Wadhwa, Sophia University

 

“Skill-Making to Survival: Reconfiguring Myanmar–Japan Migration Infrastructure Beyond Tokyo”

Junsang Lee, Freie Universität Berlin

 

15:30                   Coffee break

 

16:00                   Panel II: Diversity, belonging and governance of migrants in rural Japan

 

“Foreign and Domestic Migrants for Rural Japan? Multilevel Migration Governance in Japan's Peripheries”

Yunchen Tian, Kyoto University

 

“Detached engagement? Migration, conditions and positionality of in-between in rural Japan”

Susanne Klien, Hokkaido University

 

“Temporalities of migration: Foreign migrants in rural Japan”

Cornelia Reiher, Freie Universität Berlin

 

18:00                   Closing Remarks

Cornelia Reiher, Freie Universität Berlin