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Reluctant Intimacies Japanese Eldercare In Reluctant Intimacies Japanese Eldercare in Indonesian Hands Beata Świtek University College London Department of Anthropology PhD Thesis 2013 1 I, Beata Świtek confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Abstract The thesis explores the tensions in Japan between national ideologies of cultural homogeneity and the demographic and economic realities which increasingly point to the unavoidability of immigration. Based on research among the Indonesian eldercare workers who arrived in Japan in 2008 under an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the thesis focuses on the foreign workers’ working practices, shared experiences, and interactions with their Japanese colleagues, employers, and elderly residents, and on the public discourses surrounding the Indonesian workers’ presence in Japan. In doing so, it emphasises the saliency of essentialising cultural representations. However, the research reveals that these representations become paralleled by identifications based on other, non-cultural areas of immediate experience. Such identifications suggest the possibility of discussing the ideal of Japanese society as moving away from its homogeneous model. The thesis uses the notion of intimacy to organise and connect the discussed data on the levels of bodily, interpersonal, and national identifications. Following the politico– economic background of the Indonesian workers’ presence in Japan and the introduction of the idea of culture laid out in the vocabulary of intimacy, the consecutive chapters focus on different sets of relationships forged by the Indonesian workers. The thesis concludes with the discussion of media representations and a suggestion that the ‘seeding’ of foreign workers and residents within local communities in Japan constitutes the arena in which cross-cultural intimacies emerge. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 6 Note on Language 10 Introduction 11 Japanese multiculturalism 12 Project background 15 Representations 19 Research process 21 1. Chapter One: From International Economy to Interpersonal Care 48 Migration to Japan 48 Migration and care 50 Ethnographies in eldercare institutions 52 Indonesian care workers acceptance under the Economic Partnership Agreement 55 Recruitment in Indonesia 68 Financial disappointments 70 Professional expectations and confounded kaigo in Japan 71 Japanese dreaming 79 Chapter conclusions 86 2. Chapter Two: Nation, Culture and Intimacy 88 Care work as intimate labour 89 Intergenerational care and intra-national trust 92 Conditions of likeness 95 Descent without culture - the Brazilian Nikkeijin and kikokushijo 96 Foreign by descent – the Zainichi 98 Halves and doubles 101 Likeness and essentialisms 104 A note on culture 111 Comfort of familiarity 113 Embarrassment 118 Chapter conclusions 121 4 3. Chapter Three: Working Intimacies 123 Non-Japanese workers in care sector and beyond 124 Cultural intimacy in eldercare 129 Divisive differences 136 Towards interpersonal intimacy 146 Alliances with the elderly 146 Relations with Japanese colleagues 151 Familiar safety net of fellow Indonesian candidates 170 Chapter conclusions 172 4. Chapter Four: Intimate Management 175 Making the acceptance work 177 Employers' personal engagement 191 Reciprocity breakdown and amae 203 Chapter conclusions 212 5. Chapter Five: National Predicaments 216 Changing Japanese society 218 Test case 224 Kaikoku, an open country 226 Boring homogeneity 228 Invigorating internationalisation 232 Production of EPA Indonesian mediated images 235 EPA candidates' media representations 238 Homogeneity and security 243 Foreigners in care 245 Internationalisation once more—the third opening of Japan? 248 Chapter conclusions 252 Conclusion: Reluctant Intimacies 254 References 261 Endnotes: Original Japanese media texts quoted in the thesis 291 5 Acknowledgements As in any ethnographic piece of research the centrality of those whose lives and experiences became the basis for the researcher’s analysis is a testimony to their indispensability for the project. They are all the more important if they choose to welcome and support the researcher who out of individual professional interest probes into their most private affairs, asks to live with them, and shadows their steps. My first and foremost words of gratitude are therefore directed towards those who were my informants and friends in Japan. These were, of course, the young Indonesian workers who so readily became my hosts and teachers and put up with my presence, sometimes around the clock, in their lives. Their hospitality, humour, and patience made this project possible. A thank-you goes also to the Japanese members of staff, who had far less say in whether they wanted me around or not, but who also showed much good will and shared their views with me. The residents of the care homes, as well, often surprised at my presence and confused as to what the purpose of my hanging around might be, did not choose to be a part of my investigations. It is therefore the more appreciated that, on the whole, they showed so much support for me and were willing to share personal stories and jokes with me. Their company was a soothing element in the often-daunting task of research in a care home. It would have been impossible for me to even have met the Japanese staff and the residents if it were not for the receptiveness of the employers and the managers in the institutions I visited. I appreciate the leap of faith they made in allowing a stranger like me to wander around among the residents for whose health and well-being they were responsible. Their interest in my research, their willingness to share their concerns and opinions with me, and the time they put into organising my visits are all deeply appreciated. Although I do not use the real names of my Indonesian informants, the Japanese members of staff, the residents, or the employers, I am particularly grateful to the individuals who incognito appear on the pages of this thesis. It was the conversations and the experiences we shared which not only provided 6 the most valuable insights but also made conducting this research enjoyable. It is a shame that not all the stories we shared could make it to the pages of this thesis. I also received crucial support from a range of individuals from outside the accepting institutions. At the beginning of my research journey, Professor Glenda Roberts from Waseda University agreed to be my local supervisor in Japan, and it was also she who, at her own initiative, triggered the network of personal relationships which ultimately opened for me a way to meet my future informants. Professor Roberts’s thoughtful and encouraging replies to the informal reports on my progress offered a springboard to continue or to change a line of inquiry when sometimes I found myself at a crossroads. I am grateful for her continuous support and help, which extended beyond the field stage of this research. When I first met my Indonesian informants-to-be at a training centre where they were studying the Japanese language, I wrote in my research diary that it finally felt like I was inside an ethnographic situation. This experience was possible thanks to the staff members at the training centre who did more than just let me stay in one of the centre’s rooms. They actively introduced me to the workings of the centre and to the activities they organised for their Indonesian students. As the research progressed, I experienced friendship and disinterested support from an ever-expanding number of people: the reporter who introduced me to one of the Indonesian Embassy Minister-Counsellors, the Japanese language teachers who let me participate in their classes, the employee at the Japan International Cooperation of Welfare Services who repeatedly welcomed me in his office and who went out of his way to organise my access to the Indonesian workers arriving in Japan in 2009, a year after my main informants’ arrival, and many others. Among them, Professor Matsuno Akihisa introduced me to the Garuda Supporters, a group formed to provide support to the Indonesian workers and their accepting Japanese institutions, and invited me to join him during a visit to the University of Indonesia, where we discussed the issues affecting Indonesian migration to Japan. The Minister-Counsellor, who preferred to remain unnamed, showed a great deal of human warmth and 7 personal interest in my project. It was he who made my trip to Indonesia in 2009 worthwhile by not only arranging formal and informal introductions to secure my access to people within the Indonesian administrative apparatus, but also looking into accommodation for my husband and me during our journey. The list of contacts and more practical information he provided proved invaluable. Similarly, I am indebted to the family who hosted my husband and me during our time in Bandung and who readily included us in the festivities marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Back in Japan, the members of Garuda Supporters consistently treated me as a full member and included me in their debates and the events they organised. It is impossible to account for everyone whose help and support I received during research, but nevertheless, even if they are not mentioned here, I am equally grateful for their help. Behind each individual there are always a number of others who in more or less direct ways affect the individual’s actions. In the context of doctoral research these are of course the candidate’s supervisors. Dr Ruth Mandel and Dr Allen Abramson have offered their comments on what admittedly was never complete enough to comment on. I greatly appreciate their time invested in my work and me, and their commitment to turn me into an anthropologist. Perhaps less obviously, Professor Alfred Majewicz from the University of Poznan and Professor Charles Husband from Bradford University have also made my research project possible through their support and encouragement when I sought to enter a doctoral course and played a crucial role in my introduction to the British educational system, where I ultimately settled.
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