The 64th GJS Seminar
Tibetan Diaspora Politics in Japan

Date and time: December 17, 2019 (Tue.), 5:00-6:00PM
Venue: Lobby (1F), Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the
University of Tokyo
Speaker: Stephen Christopher (JSPS Post-doctoral Fellow, Kyoto University)
Language: English

Abstract:
In 1965, a small group of Tibetan school children resettled in
Saitama. Since then, the Tibetan community has grown to about 250
members, primarily in Tokyo. This talk analyzes the surprising
politics of the Tibetan diaspora in Japan. How do the ideologies of
rightwing groups and individuals translate into outsized Tibetan
support? How does rightwing dominance alienate left-leaning
progressives and further erode the already-fragile culture of Japanese
volunteerism? How do Tibetans in Japan respond to this political
milieu? Answering these questions fundamentally reframes the Tibetan
diaspora and provides stark contrast to the rights-based liberal
support for Tibet common across Euro-America. It also addresses the
broader question of the place of Tibet, Tibetans, and Tibetan Buddhism
within the Japanese cultural imaginary.

Stephen Christopher is a postdoctoral fellow at Kyoto University. He
is the Himalayas editor at the Database of Religious History at the
University of British Columbia. He is also a consultant for iSEE, a
Hanoi-based NGO addressing the stigmatisation of Chinese ethnic
minorities. He completed his PhD in anthropology from Syracuse
University in 2018.


Organizer: The Global Japan Studies Network (GJS)
Co-organizer: Institute for Advanced Studeis on Asia (IASA), Japanese
Association for South Asian Studies (JASAS)
Contact： gjs[at]ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp