The Global Asia Research Center holds a workshop on urban migrants in rural Japan to explore sustainable community design in a time of post-growth. We look forward to your participation.

Speaker: Dr. Susanne Klien (Associate Professor, Hokkaido University)

Chair: Dr. Yoshihiro Nakano (Junior Researcher/ Assistant Professor, Waseda University)

Date & Time: December 20 (Mon) 2021, 16:30-18:00 (Japan Time)

*This is online event. To participate, finish registration by December 13, 2021 via: https://bit.ly/susanneklien
*Inquiry: [email protected]

Abstract:
In this talk I will explore the narratives and trajectories of individuals who relocate from urban to rural areas in Japan and seek new modes of working and living. Findings from my multi-sited ethnographic research published in 2020 (SUNY Press) indicate a changing role of rural areas from postwar notions of stagnant backwaters to experimental grounds, often with translocal features. However, at a personal level, the hope for change often coincides with precarity, risk and self-exploitation. I will explore how mobility serves different aims and how newcomers negotiate their lives between the aspiration to a better life, a sense of belonging and alienation. To this end, I introduce the concept of moratorium migration to refer to mobility that serves as a strategic mechanism that individuals resort to in order to hedge their bets, gain time, and seek assurance, inspiration, and courage to do (or further postpone doing) what ultimately makes sense to them (Klien 2020: 184). And last but not least, given the changes brought on by the recent pandemic, are these lifestyle migrants drops in the ocean or the beginning of a formative change?