Mukokuseki diasporans

[imomus]

Mukokuseki: the Japanese word for "without nationality".
Diaspora: an ex-patriated or exiled population, spread through the world.

Marxy has an interesting piece up just now on the new Japanese Tokion. It's very much an insider's perspective, since Marxy was once an editor at the American Tokion. He runs through the confusingly complicated permutations of the magazine's various owners, editions and editors on two continents (this new Tokion is the Japanese one, and is now owned by INFAS, who publish my favourite Japanese magazine, Studio Voice).

Marxy concludes: "The new Tokion is not so much about this messianistic mission of exporting Japanese cool, but looking at the local culture arising from the contemporary mix between foreigners and Japanese."

Now, this is a program I can get behind. While I'm very much into exporting Japanese cool, I do think a goodly amount of it is created by the Japanese who've left Japan to study abroad, and who've miscegenated, culturally and biologically, with foreigners, as well as by foreigners who've been drawn to Japan, "Japanizing" themselves in the process. Sure, I love the pure stuff too, but I'm definitely into bastard chic.

This celebration of the mukokuseki chimes with something I said the other day on Click Opera, when talking about Donald Richie's long and lonely Tokyo exile. Anon commented: "It's not that you want to live in Japan but can't afford to. You actually don't want to live there, only visit once a year. Just like people who live in England but who like to visit France once a year, to eat nice cheese and practise their rusty French. And on top of that, you actually find the intellectual climate there frustrating, and anything but invigorating."

I responded: "I'd say it's more like preferring "the Japanese diaspora" to Japan itself. The Japanese diaspora is multi-culti, and contains many of the most creative Japanese people as well as those foreigners who love Japan. It contains the best of both worlds, and leaves all that's provincial and stifling in both the West and Japan behind."

It seems to be very much this "Japanese diaspora" that the new Tokion will concentrate on. Issue 2 will focus on Tokyo-based Japanese-French couple Yoshi and Audrey, who run cool music / fashion magazine OK Fred, and in many ways they're typical Jap-diasporans, collaborating across racial boundaries, as post-national as Shibuya-kei seemed to be back in the day.

Marxy has some well-founded doubts, though: "My only concern is whether "we foreign Tokyo residents" are actually so interesting or dynamic to warrant such coverage. Tokion Japan does not ignore Japanese creators to solely focus on the ex-pat fashion world, but the latter may end up providing a baseline view of the "glocal" culture... The success of Tokion Japan will eventually depend upon how interesting Tokyo inter-racial, inter-national "glocal" culture actually is."

I think that's the key question, and a very interesting one. Nowhere more than in the style press does the question of "who's interesting, who's dull" feature so centrally. It's all about "who's hot, who's not", and "who's in, who's out of the clique". It's also "who has the right to decide these things", and on the answer to that hangs a self-appointed would-be style authority's success or failure.

There's no doubt that the mukokuseki creators being spotlit in the new Tokion's features have the necessary self-confidence. Last week, for instance, Audrey Fondecave ruffled a few feathers by telling Martin Webb of Japan Times that "when we take our daughter Liliyo to parties, like the opening of an exhibition or shop, and it’s full of people that are unbelievably dull, I see some of them really change when looking at Liliyo’s smile."

This prompted one "Fletcher" to comment (on Jean Snow's blog): "This woman comes across as somewhat pleased with herself in a less-than-modest way... Audrey ...you and your family are among the Beautiful People. Gag me." (I responded by citing a much nicer quote in which Audrey said Tokyo had made her "a better, more tolerant person".)

But it's not enough for we diasporans to be confident, bold and narcissistic, or to bring sunshine into a grey, racially monolithic world with our mukokuseki children. We need an audience, darling, and they must not only be dull, but see themselves as dull before they'll shut up and pay attention to us, or smile back at our gurgling, gurning trans-national babies.

The thing is, it's by no means certain that Japan in 2006 is the right place to find such an audience. Recently the Japanese, once in thrall to all things foreign, seem to have discovered a self-satisfaction worryingly congruous with our own. It's not just evident in Shinzo Abe's "Make Japan proud!" slogan; it runs throughout the whole culture. Switch on TV and it's very hard to find anything non-Japanese at all. The archipelago curves towards itself in an arc of narcissism.

In this climate, a magazine like the new Tokion may have to content itself with a pretty small audience. How many mukokuseki diasporans are there in Tokyo, anyway, to read in Japanese about people pretty much like themselves? And how much disposable income do they have, after their Tokyo rents get paid?

Comments

thinking about this in the context as an immigrant

[svenskasfinx.livejournal.com]

But it's not enough for we diasporans to be confident, bold and narcissistic, or to bring sunshine into a grey, racially monolithic world with our mukokuseki children. We need an audience, darling, and they must not only be dull, but see themselves as dull before they'll shut up and pay attention to us, or smile back at our gurgling, gurning trans-national babies.

But still, I wonder if Tokyo is so closed in the artistic job market as Sweden can be, there is a protectiveness to the art world here... even if you have a degree from an internationally acclaimed art school, and there ARE in fact jobs (as in the UK) within "ART" however there is a catch, in spite of the so called "left-leaning" the art world here lays claim to, there is a certain threat being foreign has, so much so that one must work in the "area" for 3 years inside of the country before one can become part of the "protected job market".. a kind of "catch 22" situation, as you need access to what their closed market offers in order to really get a job, other wise, there is a dishwashing job available there..and you never get into the art market after 3 years of dishwashing.

Foreign-ness in any place which finds the appeal of "those others" exciting, often has a back lash, somewhere, because it is about being "too interesting" and even a threat.. I understand that when I go to a party, and people find out where I come from.

It gets that way just taking my son to school, as he is bilingual and very "different", perhaps he would be this way even if he wasn't multi-national, or lacking of nationallity. I wouldn't think it was based upon any difference of features, characteristics since physically, we don't really "stand out", as a foreign person in Japan would.

We speak the language, we do all the "Swedish" things, but we are still neither here, nor there. And this can not be blamed upon any sort of right/left thing happening here at the moment... as most immigrants were very supportive of the "socialist" right, party. (all are socialists, and will never be more than various shades of that, which suits me fine as they are nothing like Thatcher or Reagan or Bush)which is probably how they got elected in the first place after being so disapointed by the system in place.

I in fact see in other areas that Sweden embraces the foreign and this is why they close their job market to me (and others)... still struggling to find a way in, via the other methods, but starting your own buisness just to extend your employment opportunties is not an option at this time.

Maybe the whole problem with the back lash in the Tokyo thing is just that very same thing, just the difference is exciting and people are questioning themselves "why should it be that way?" and often it is about finding self confidence and excitement in one's own culture.. but often this is at the exclusion of other's culture.

Yesterday's paper had a comic strip in it focusing on the letter "X", and said "X" is for "Xenophobe" in Swedish.. it was just an illustation of how small and frightning the world is when you see everyone who is not like you as a threat.

Is the appeal of the foreign who leave their country for another more of a particpant observer showing a country what is so wonderful about themselves, or is it really about the difference, like monkeys in the zoo, "look how they are like us, but yet so different"-difference?

There are more than 1,000,000 immigrants in Sweden at this time so I assume that the market, although only 12%, for the most part, when it comes to jobs, is still that of a threat. Even outside of the art world.. and people have mentioned that they do feel discriminated against... in spite of our very open policies, anti-discrimination laws and other things in place.

I can't assume that Japan has such rules - nor as many immigrants.

Re: thinking about this in the context as an immigrant

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think the shift in attitudes to immigration, globalisation and so on over the last five years has been very tragic, and I don't know what could reverse it. Of course, in the 90s people were shouting that it was a fig-leaf for imperialism, but now they'd be happy to see that "soft power" again, rather than today's terrorism, paranoia and closing down of options.

Re: thinking about this in the context as an immigrant

[mcgazz.livejournal.com]

Well, everyone connected with art in Liverpool seems to be a foreigner, so maybe you're looking in the wrong places for jobs.

well sure if I lived in the UK

[svenskasfinx.livejournal.com]

it would actually work, in fact I have family that moved from Hamilton, Scotland to Liverpool.

But don't you get it? That's exactly why its harder, a protected job market within Sweden when it comes to areas of Culture. The KAF (Kulturarbetsförmildingen) web site I am not allowed to be a part of has a huge data base which promotes visual artists of all kinds and has enough memory to upload video, and all out of my access! But yet I understand, they have to protect the market from the "exotic" influence such as myself.. as we are far too strange and interesting..