Abstract
This chapter examines the ways in which foreign nationals residing in the disaster zone in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake experienced the “flyjin” phenomenon and its related discourse. Flyjin refers to foreign nationals who left Japan as a result of the 2011 disaster, and Cadwell analyses this phenomenon across four themes: the place of flyjin discourse in broader debates on internationalisation and belonging in Japanese society; exaggeration of the extent of the flyjin phenomenon; juxtaposition of flyjin with those who remained in Japan; and evidence from the flyjin discourse that suggests reasons for foreign nationals’ decisions to relocate out of the disaster zone. Findings from this analysis may be of particular interest to those who wish to prepare Japan for a future disaster.
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Notes
- 1.
“Okaerinasai” is a Japanese expression that can be translated as “Welcome home.” The “sai” of “okaerinasai’ rhymes with the “fly” of the original blend word.
- 2.
See Cadwell (2015) for the full case study.
- 3.
These records are available in Japanese from: http://tinyurl.com/n2ucdxq [Accessed 13 August 2017].
- 4.
Ethical approval for this project was granted prior to the commencement of the research by Dublin City University’s Research Ethics Committee (REC Reference: DCUREC/2013/146).
- 5.
Claiming causative insight from case study data is a contentious issue; see, for example, Gomm, Hammersley, and Foster (2000). However, other authors (e.g., Mitchell 2000) point out that, if rigour has been demonstrated in the development of a theory from case study data, then it is fair to claim ‘theoretical generalisation’, and such theoretical propositions can be tested and expanded on in other contexts. Rather than predictive or causative insight, then, this case study aims to achieve some normative insight; the highlighting of significant categories in the data and the proposing of relationships between them in order to guide further enquiry.
- 6.
For an instructive exposition of some of the debates surrounding how language, culture, and identity intersect with ideas of foreignness in Japan, see Gottlieb (2012).
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Acknowledgments
Sections of this chapter have been developed from the author’s unpublished PhD thesis, cited in the Reference list. This work was supported by Dublin City University and the National Development Plan under a Daniel O’Hare PhD Scholarship. Fieldwork for this research was also part-funded by DCU’s School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies and Centre for Translation and Textual Studies.
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Cadwell, P. (2019). Foreign Residents’ Experiences of the Flyjin Phenomenon in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. In: Bouterey, S., Marceau, L. (eds) Crisis and Disaster in Japan and New Zealand. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0244-2_5
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