Japanese Diaspora and the Narratives of Migrants：The Case of Australia and Diasporic Literature

OISHI, Nana

doi:2022.15.1.107

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 15(1); 2022 > Article

Special Issue

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2022;15(1): 107-124.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2022.15.1.107

Japanese Diaspora and the Narratives of Migrants：The Case of Australia and Diasporic Literature

Nana OISHI

Associate Professor in Japanese Studies, University of Melbourne

日本人の海外移住と移住者のナラティヴ―― オーストラリアの事例とディアスポラ文学

大石奈々

メルボルン大学日本研究学科准教授。専門は日本の外国人受入れ政策、多文化共生、日本人ディアスポラ研究。

Correspondence Nana OISHI ,Email: nana.oishi@unimelb.edu.au

Published online: 30 December 2022.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

The overseas emigration of Japanese citizens has been on the rise in the last three decades, reaching at the level of 1.34 million in 2021 (MOFA 2022). While the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in its downturn, the number of Japanese citizens who obtained permanent residence overseas continued to increase, hitting a record high of 537,662 in 2021 (MOFA 2022). This article examines the factors behind this growing overseas emigration of Japanese citizens, particularly looking at its flows to Australia, which is now the second most popular destination for Japanese permanent residents. Based on the narratives of 62 research participants, this article will present the basic ideal types of Japanese emigrants and examine the themes that appeared prominently in their emigration decision-making, including the acquisition of global experience, work-life balance, gender inequality, aversion of disaster/environmental and long-term economic risks, and political concerns. It will also discuss the ways in which Japanese emigration and the diversifying experiences of Japanese citizens have impacted Japanese literature so far and how the growing presence of ‘global nomads’ moving across multiple borders is likely to enrich the Japanese literature in the future by challenging the existing understanding of “Japaneseness” and the meaning of migration.

Keywords: Japan, Migration, Emigration, Australia, Japanese Literature

キ―ワ―ド: 日本, 国際移動, 国際移住, オーストラリア, 日本文学