Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Escaping Japan: Reflections on Estrangement and Exile in the Twenty-First Century

2018; Oxford University Press; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ssjj/jyy036

1468-2680

Elizabeth A. Miles,

Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

In recent years, within both the Japanese and English-language literature, there has been a trend of using the concept of ‘refugee’, or nanmin, to describe contemporary social dynamics or, depending on one’s position, dysfunctions. Terms such as kazoku nanmin (usually used to denote singles well beyond the ideal age of marriage) or kekkon nanmin (those who wish to marry but are unable to) are often used to castigate those whom they define. Authors’ various uses of nanmin routinely blur any line between structure (often socio-economic factors) and agency (choosing not to marry, for example). For the authors of this transnational collaboration, ‘escape’ rather than ‘refugee’ is the theoretical core of their interlocutors’ stories. And, as with nanmin, escape itself is an aimai (ambiguous) concept, but one which is ‘good to think’ when attempting to understand contemporary Japan. Comprised of nine primary ethnographic chapters with a reflective epilogue, the volume’s authors, in myriad ways, use ‘escape’ as a rubric for conceptualizing contemporary change in Japan. As discussed in Guarné and Hansen’s introduction, the term is an attempt to capture the ‘fluidity and complexity’ (p. 1) of contemporary Japan, wherein ‘escape’ has multiple meanings which reflect the multiple ways of being in this fascinating period. Throughout the volume we are introduced to a varied collection of individuals, as well as to the institutions which both enable and/or encourage escape. The work itself is part of a growing opus that challenges normative ethnographies of Japan and of postwar ‘Japaneseness’. Beginning with the 2006 volume Japan after Japan and perhaps best exemplified by Capturing Contemporary Japan (2014), these works, along with the current volume, describe—implicitly and explicitly—how postmainstream Japan can be theorized in various terms, all of which are an attempt to capture current dynamics. For this volume’s authors, escape is multifaceted and achieved through various means. Rather than attempt a definition, it is best to understand each chapter’s framing on its own terms, in the interlocutors’ own words. The chapters speak to two types of ‘escape’: the ideational and the literal.