Abstract
This paper examines how guests become hosts in the Ogasawara/Bonin islands, and suggests that the nature of the guest-host relationship is fluid, not fixed.
Ogasawara is located approximately 1,000 km south of Tokyo. Settlement in this island began in the 19th century by Americans and Europeans. Ogasawara became a Japanese territory at the end of the 19th century, and migration from mainland Japan then started. After World War II, Ogasawara became part of the US occupation, and no Japanese people were allowed to live on the island until the occupation ended in 1968. Since then, Ogasawara has shifted their traditional economy from one based on whaling to ecotourism. Ogasawara has come to be recognized as an advanced ecotourism area in Japan, and it was selected as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in 2011.
The main focus of this paper is the case of “new islanders,” who migrate from mainland Japan after initially visiting the island as guests. Today, more than half of the islanders are “new islanders,” and they are therefore not a minority. Many of them are involved in ecotourism activities. It is assumed that a tourism resource is something hosts sell and guests buy. This explanation however is not sufficient to adequately explain the case of Ogasawara society. My previous research shows that one of the characteristics of Ogasawara’s ecotourism is that the “new islander” lifestyle and guests are closely related; however, for a better understanding of the relationship between the lifestyle of “new islanders” and tourism, it is necessary to incorporate perspectives of the host-guests relationship. This paper, therefore, specifically examines which aspects of the “new islanders’” lifestyle leads to guests become new Ogasawara islanders.
The fieldwork revealed that tourists observe the lifestyle of “new islanders,” and at the same time, “new islanders” stage their living for the tourists. This staging works well because the “new islanders” know how to present what tourists want, as they were once tourists themselves. As a result, tourists admire life in Ogasawara. I found that tourists become “new islanders” not simply through ecotourism but also by the staging performed by “new islanders.” The analysis shows that the host-guests relationship in Ogasawara is not fixed but fluid, as seen when guests have become hosts. Tourism in Ogasawara, of course, brings tourists but also brings those who will become new members of the island. However, some of them leave the island eventually because they are unable to adopt an ecotourism-based lifestyle. Only those “new islanders” who could adopt the ecotourism philosophy are able to settle in Ogasawara. Therefore, it can be said that the islanders are selected, and that is the fluidity of the host-guest relationship in Ogasawara.
