UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Aporia of Omotenashi
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Aporia of Omotenashi: Hospitality in Post-Oriental and Post-Imperial Japan A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Ryoko Nishijima 2017 © Copyright by Ryoko Nishijima 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Aporia of Omotenashi: Hospitality in Post-Oriental and Post-Imperial Japan by Ryoko Nishijima Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Mariko Tamanoi, Chair The Japanese tourism industry, from its formation in the early 20th century to today, bears in many ways the postcolonial contradictions of Japan as a nation that has been at once the colonizer and the Orient. Engaging with the complex power dynamics inherent in the seemingly friendly gestures of “hospitality,” my dissertation analyzes the inconsistent ways in which the Japanese tourism industry has defined and dealt with foreign visitors, comparatively looking at tourists from the “West” and “Asia.” I divide the dissertation into four chapters: “Hospitality Infrastructure: Pursuing the Civilized,” which uncovers the mixed sentiment of national pride and shame behind the ardent discourse of hospitality in Japan, “Tourist Gaze: Searching for the Oriental,” in which I illustrate how Orientalist imaginings of Japan have continued to transform and endure in the tourist gazes today, “Roles of a Host: Performing the Hospitable,” which takes an ethnographic look at social relations between hosts and guests, and “Guests from Greater China: Welcoming the Ex-Colonized,” where I identify the legacy of Japan’s colonial history in the increasing number of visitors from the Greater China Region. KEYWORDS: Tourism, Japan, Postcolonialism, Techno-Orientalism, Hospitality ii The dissertation of Ryoko Nishijima is approved. Kyeyoung Park Marjorie Harness Goodwin Lieba Bernice Faier Mariko Tamanoi, Committee Chair University of California Los Angeles 2017 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents............................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................................v Vita……………………………………………………………………………………………….vii Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 I. Hospitality Infrastructure............................................................................................................24 II. Constructing the Tourist Gaze...................................................................................................72 III. Roles of a Host.......................................................................................................................118 IV. Guests from Greater China.....................................................................................................155 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................194 Notes……....................................................................................................................................202 References....................................................................................................................................207 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my committee chair Mariko Tamanoi who helped me in every stage of the research. This project would not have been possible without her continued guidance and encouragement throughout my graduate career. Additionally, I thank my committee members and outside mentors, Kyeyoung Park, Marjorie “Candy” Goodwin, Lieba Faier, Katsuya Hirano, and Miyako Inoue for numerous constructive feedbacks and continued mentorship. The UCLA Department of Anthropology fosters a rich soil for intellectual exchange, and has provided me with a wonderful academic environment to study for the past seven years. I thank all my cohorts, faculty mentors, and the department staff, especially Ann Walters for helping me maneuver through loads of administrative work. I gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support from the Sasakawa Fellowship, the George and Sakaye Aratani Field Experience Scholarship, and Hans H. Baerwald Graduate Student Fellowship through the UCLA Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, without which I would not have been able to complete my field research and dissertation writing. I have learned greatly during seminars, colloquiums, and lectures organized by the Terasaki Center; I extend my gratitude to Assistant Director Noël Shimizu, and faculty members at UCLA who engage in various forms of Japan Studies, Seiji Lippit, William Marotti, Torquil Duthie, and Michael Emmerich. I was fortunate enough to have multiple opportunities to present portions of my research while they were still work in progress. Discussions and suggestions raised during these occasions have been extremely valuable for further development of my thesis. I would like to thank all the organizers, fellow panelists and discussants for extending their invitations to conference panels v and workshops: Shinji Yamashita, Nelson H. Graburn, Takayoshi Yamamura, Kazumi Hasegawa, and Christina Owens. I also thank Glenda Roberts and zemi classmates at Waseda University Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies for providing me with an intellectual home during my fieldwork. A great portion of my graduate career was dedicated to Japanese language pedagogy at the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. I thank the staff and sensei – Shoichi Iwasaki, Yumiko Kawanishi and Eishi Ikeda – for the experience. I have had a series of inspiring conversations with fellow graduate students in the Interdisciplinary Japan Studies Group and colleagues at the Asian Languages and Cultures department, to whom I am deeply grateful. A special thanks is due to Edwin “Ted” Everhart and Elizabeth “Liz” Carter who helped editing my draft. Finally, I am indebted to the tourism information centers, volunteer clubs, and other organizations that gave me an invaluable opportunity to conduct fieldwork in Tokyo, and to all the “hosts” and “guests” I interviewed for participating in my research. I extend my warmest arigato, xiexie, and thank you to my friends and families in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States, to my parents and cats in Fukuoka for their constant love and support, and to Philip Hsu for being the perfect informant for my studies and for joining me as a fellow tourist in life’s journey. R.N. October, 2017 vi VITA EDUCATION University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA. Anthropology, M.A. 2012; Ph.D. expected 2017 Waseda University, Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Exchange Researcher. Tokyo, Japan, 2014 Stanford University Stanford, CA. Cultural and Social Anthropology with Honors; Film and Media Studies (Double Major), B.A. 2008 Notation of Proficiency in Chinese Princeton in Beijing; Peking University, Stanford Overseas Studies. Beijing, PRC, 2006 Fukuoka Prefectural Shuyukan High School Fukuoka, Japan, 2004 Shuyukan Award EMPLOYMENT Instructor, Teaching Fellow UCLA Asian Languages and Cultures Department, 2015-2017 Teaching Fellow UCLA, Department of Anthropology, 2015 Teaching Assistant UCLA, Department of Anthropology, 2011-2013 Research Assistant for Professor Mariko Tamanoi, UCLA, Department of Anthropology, 2012-17 Research Assistant for Professor Lieba Faier, UCLA, Department of Geography, 2011 English Teacher Sirindhorn School, English Program, Surin, Thailand, 2008-2010 CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (SELECTED) “A Taiwanese Pilgrim’s Daytrip into the Scenes of Your Name.” American Anthropological Association, Washington D.C., November 29-December 3, 2017 “Be Our Guest: Rhetoric of Hospitality in the Politics of Exclusion.” Association for Asian American Studies. Portland, OR, April 13-15, 2017 “Searching for Japan in the Cyberspace.” Contents Tourism: Creativity, Fandom, Neo-Destinations. UC Berkeley, March 10-11, 2017 “Omotenashi in Late Meiji and Taishō Japan: From the Welcome Society to Japan Tourist Bureau.” Harvard East Asia Society Conference. Harvard University, February 24-25, 2017 “Gift and Hospitality: Omotenashi in Late Meiji and Taishō Japan.” Trans-Pacific Workshop. UCLA Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, June 5-6, 2015 vii “Omotenashi in Late Meiji and Taishō Japan: From the Welcome Society to Japan Tourist Bureau.” Association for Asian Studies. Chicago, IL, March 26-29, 2015 “Visiting ‘Riben’ (Japan): Disjunction and Bifurcation of ‘Chinese Tourists’ in Tokyo.” American Anthropological Association. Washington D.C., December 3-7, 2014 “In Search of Japan Bits: Imagining and Traveling across (Cyber)Space.” IUAES with JASCA: The Future with/of Anthropologies. Chiba, Japan, May 15-18, 2014 “Comfortable Outsiders: "Western" and "Chinese" Tourist Consumption and Digital Imagining of Japan as Other.” UCSB East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies Summer Institute. UCSB, June 20-24, 2012 viii Introduction A tale of hospitality, sacrifice, and destruction appears in the Book of Genesis. Lot, nephew of Abraham who lives in the city of Sodom with his wife and daughters, is visited by two angels, whom he cordially invites into his house and provides with food and shelter. After dinner, the men of the city, young and old, come surrounding the house and demand, “Bring them out unto us, that we may