Doctoral Dissertation Research: Migration and Gendered Constructions of Identity: Reproducing the Home for Tourists in Rural Japan

第二次世界大战后，日本经历了戏剧性的经济增长，迅速成为第一世界国家。 这一进程的一部分包括快速的城市化，这导致了该国许多农村的人口减少。 与此同时，许多人哀叹日本与其农业历史的分离，声称日本的国家认同感位于农村。 这个概念集中体现在一个理想化的地方，称为furusato（家乡/故乡）。 如今，以怀旧为主题的乡村旅游业的发展，也反映出人们对日本乡村的普遍怀旧情绪。 这一发展导致许多偏远村庄的重生，并增加了向这些目的地移徙的工人。 这些工人中的许多人几乎没有其他工作机会。 本博士论文的课题是分析劳动者迁移到位于九州岛南部的熊本县偏远地区的乡村旅游目的地的影响。 博士生的目的是加强了解农民工的工作和生活条件，以及农民工，当地客栈老板和当地居民之间的关系。 本研究的数据将通过在日本的一家旅游客栈的员工参与观察和半结构化的采访与客栈工人，客栈老板和主管以及当地旅游官员和居民收集。 这些方法将揭示在日本农村旅游业发展过程中工人和当地人的生活。 预计本研究将表明，虽然农村旅游目的地越来越多地转向农民工，以满足工人的需求，工人和当地居民的互动相对较少，尽管他们的接近。 调查人员还预计会发现，外来务工人员在临时居住在这个迎合游客的村庄时，会像一个代理家庭一样相互依赖。拟议中的研究将分析全球旅游业的发展如何影响一个偏远的小村庄以及在那里生活和工作的人们。 它将研究一个正在迅速失去工业经济基础的第一世界国家的服务业增长，这种情况在世界上许多国家都存在。 随着蓝领工作流失到海外竞争，日本雇主和工人必须适应时代的变化。 不断增长的服务业的某些部门，如酒店业，为技能相对较低的工人提供了就业机会，否则他们可能很难找到体面的工作。 然而，这些工作中有许多需要搬到除了当地人和游客之外缺乏服务的地方。 农民工向农村的流动带来了许多潜在的问题，无论是对感到孤立的工人，还是对缺乏必要劳动力但往往对外来者持谨慎态度的当地社区。 这项研究将探讨移民工人的经验，旅游，两个领域的研究很少相交，但共同的流动性和身份的中心问题。 这项研究具有潜在的影响，在工作场所的民族认同和性别的研究，以及旅游业方面的旅游目的地规划和就业实践的实际影响。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

Following World War II, Japan experienced dramatic economic growth, quickly becoming a first-world nation. Part of this process included rapid urbanization, which led to the depopulation of many of the nation's rural villages. In the meantime, many people lamented the nation's separation from its agricultural past, claiming that Japanese national identity was located in the countryside. This notion is epitomized in an idealized place called furusato (hometown/native home). Today, widespread nostalgia for rural Japan can be seen in the growth of tourism to nostalgic-themed destinations located in rural areas. This development has led to the rebirth of many remote villages and the increased migration of workers to these destinations. Many of these workers have few other job possibilities. This doctoral dissertation project will analyze the impact of worker migration to a particular rural tourist destination located in a remote area of Kumamoto Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu. The doctoral candidate aims to enhance understanding the working and living conditions of migrant workers as well as the relationships among between migrant workers, local inn owners, and local inhabitants. Data for this research will be collected through participant observation as an employee at a tourist inn located in Japan and semi-structured interviews with inn workers, inn owners and supervisors as well as local tourism officials and residents. These methods will uncover the lives of workers and locals amid the growth of the tourist industry in rural Japan. It is expected that this research will show that while rural tourist destinations increasingly turn to migrant labor to satisfy worker demand, the workers and local inhabitants have relatively little interaction despite their proximity. The investigators also anticipate discovering that migrant workers rely on each other as a surrogate family while temporarily living in this village that caters to tourists.The proposed research will analyze how the global process of tourism affects a small, remote village and the people who both live and work there. It will look at the growth of the service industry in a first-world nation that is fast losing its industrial economic base, a situation occurring in many nations around the world. With the loss of blue-collar jobs to overseas competition, Japanese employers and workers must adjust to changing times. Certain sectors of the growing service industry, such as the hospitality industry, provide job opportunities for relatively low-skilled workers who might otherwise struggle to find decent work. However, many of these jobs require moving to locations that lack services for all but locals and tourists. The movement of migrant workers to the countryside poses numerous potential problems, both for workers who feel isolated and for local communities who lack the necessary labor but tend to be wary of outsiders. This research will examine the migrant worker experience in relation to tourism, two fields of study that seldom intersect yet that share central concerns of mobility and identity. This research has potential implications for the study of national identity and gender in the workplace as well as practical implications for the tourist industry in regard to tourist destination planning and employment practices. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.