Re-Imagining/Re-Creating “Japan” in Intercultural Education: The Experiences of Border-Crossing Youths

Abstract

This article explains the purpose of the special theme session at the 2020 Annual Conference of the Intercultural Education Society of Japan. The theme is “Re-Imagining/Re-Creating ‘Japan’: The Experiences of Border-Crossing Youths”. The aim of the session is to understand how border-crossing youths re-imagine and re-create “Japan”. At the same time, we examine how researchers of Intercultural Education attempt to re-imagine and re-create “Japan” through interaction with border-crossing youths.

We focus on the experiences of border-crossing youths, since their experiences to move between various regions and nations indicate critical points of view and alternative ways of living. We do not adopt, however, the dichotomous framework which considers border-crossing youths as minority and Japanese researchers as majority. Rather we attempt to reflect our positionality and emphasize the interrelationship between border-crossing youths and researchers.

We put Japan in brackets, since we doubt essentialist idea of Japanese people and Japanese culture. We insist that the border between majority and minority is socially constructed in the particular context in which a researcher is also involved.

Imagination is linked with creation. We attempt to imagine alternative and to create something that does not exist up to the present date. We keep imagining and creating better alternative. Thus we title this special theme session “Re-Imagining/Re-Creating “Japan””.

In the session, three researchers present their research on the experiences of border-crossing youths. They listen to and collect the voices of border-crossing youths who have often been ignored. During their research, the researchers themselves cross various borders and observe unequal relationship of power. They attempt to indicate various ways of negotiating with border-crossing youths and to develop critical imaginations for creating alternative “Japan” where diverse others can live together.