Being-with others : an existential anthropology of recent Chinese migration in Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

This ethnography explores the disjunctures, tensions and convivialities experienced by Chinese migrants in Japan. Chinese migrants now constitute the largest group of registered "foreigners" in Japan, with over 600,000 documented in 2009. The size of this group is the result of a Chinese government-sponsored drive for educational and economic success, and Japan's flexible student visa cum proxy labour migration system. The migrants are situated in a complex world of conflicting imperatives and confusing mobility regimes. Based on 20 months fieldwork in Tokyo's unofficial Chinatown, Ikebukuro, this dissertation demonstrates the value of an existential focus in the Anthropology of migration. I do not represent migrants as harbingers of a new epoch of transnational flexibility nor as mere subjects of global capital and the nation{u00AD} state. Rather, I present them as an example of how we all negotiate complex social worlds amplified by disjunctures and mobility. I situate my existential focus with reference to the work of Jean Luc Nancy, particularly his use of the term "being-with." I also take inspiration from Michael Jackson's work, showing how relational materialities, affects and events shape migrant lives. The chapters of this dissertation consider existential dilemmas as they manifest themselves across a number of spatial scales. I examine everyday practice in the small spaces of conviviality found in Ikebukuro, the dilemmas of living in the large metropolis of Tokyo and how Ikebukuro is situated within the broader field of international Chinese migration. I explore the ways Chinese migrants struggle to define themselves at these multiple levels, often leading to a sense of ambivalence in their lives. As much as this struggle creates a sense of ambivalence however, the place of kinship in their transnational imaginaries gives a particular shape to their sense of "being-with." I conclude by showing how events such as the Tohoku earthquake create new imperatives for Chinese migrants, suggesting potential sources of hope for the relationship between Ikebukuro Chinese and Japanese locals.