Dear SSJ Forum members,

I would like to inform you about the next talk organized by the Japan Migration Research Group; Waseda University Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies.

Constructing Families across National Boundaries: The Case of Japanese Women and their Pakistani Husbands

Masako Kudo
(Kyoto Women's University)

Time: Friday, 20 January, 4:30-6:00 pm

Place: Room 711, Bldg. 19, Waseda University (Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies Building)

Access: http://www.waseda.jp/gsaps/info/traffic_en.html

An increase in the number of intermarriages since the 1980s has added a new element to the growing diversity in Japanese society. This presentation aims to explore the complexities of cross-border marriages by discussing the case of Japanese women who married Pakistani Muslim migrants during the 1990s. As the mixed couples underwent their life cycle, their socio-economic circumstances transformed in various ways including their occupation and the legal status of the husbands within Japan. Also, there has been a tendency for the households to cross national boundaries as their off-spring grow up.
This presentation will illustrate the trajectories of transnational family making, using data gathered through in-depth interviews conducted among the Japanese wives. How did these women cross multiple borders during the process of family making, and in what ways did gender, religion and other factors intersect in their life experiences? Additionally, this presentation will examine the ways in which the mixed-couples mobilize their religio-cultural resources in order to navigate their lives in transnational space. In so doing, the shifting (and sometimes conflicting) dreams and desires held by the mixed couples as well as the possibilities and limitations involved in their transnational practices will be highlighted.

Masako Kudo is associate professor in Cultural Anthropology at Kyoto Women's University.
She obtained her B.A. degree from Sophia University, M.Sc. degree from the University of Edinburgh, and M.A. and Ph.D degrees from the University of Tokyo. Her major publications include "Ekkyo no Jinruigaku: Zainichi Pakisutan-jin Musulimu Imin no Tsuma- tachi" (An Anthropology of Border-Crossing in Japan:
Japanese Wives of Pakistan Muslim
Migrants) (in Japanese), 2008, University of Tokyo Press; "Becoming the Other in One's Own Homeland?: The Processes of Self-construction among Japanese Muslim Women,"
Japanese Review of Cultural Anthropology, Vol 8 (2008); and "Pakistani Husbands, Japanese Wives: A New Presence in Tokyo and Beyond,"
Asian Anthropology, Vol.8
(2009). She has conducted research among Japanese women married to Pakistani Muslim migrants in Japan and abroad. More recently, her research extended to the UK where she has studied the changing socio-economic status and identity issues of British Pakistani women.


Helene Le Bail

Chercheure
Institut francais de recherche sur le Japon Maison franco-japonaise de Tokyo
http://www.mfj.gr.jp/recherche/recherche/