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Japanese New York: Migrant Artists and Self-reinvention on the World Stage

Online ISBN:
9780824869090
Print ISBN:
9780824839413
Publisher:
University of Hawai'i Press
Book

Japanese New York: Migrant Artists and Self-reinvention on the World Stage

Olga Kanzaki Sooudi
Olga Kanzaki Sooudi
University of Amsterdam
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Published:
31 October 2014
Online ISBN:
9780824869090
Print ISBN:
9780824839413
Publisher:
University of Hawai'i Press

Abstract

Spend time in New York City and, soon enough, you will encounter some of the Japanese nationals who live and work there. NYC is also home to one of the largest overseas Japanese populations in the world. Among them are artists and designers who produce cutting-edge work in fields such as design, fashion, music, and art. Part of the so-called“creative class” and a growing segment of the neoliberal economy, these Japanese migrants are usually middle-class and college-educated. They move to NYC in the hope of realizing dreams and aspirations unavailable to them in Japan. Yet the creative careers they desire are competitive, and many end up working illegally in precarious, low-paying jobs. Though they often migrate without fixed plans for return, nearly all eventually do, and their migrant trajectories are punctuated by visits home. This book offers a portrait of these Japanese creative migrants living and working in NYC. At its heart is a universal question—how do adults reinvent their lives? In the absence of any material or social need, what makes it worthwhile for people to abandon middle-class comfort and home for an unfamiliar and insecure life? The book explores these questions in four different venues patronized by New York's Japanese. The story of Japanese migrant artists in NYC is both a story about Japan and a way of examining Japan from beyond its borders.

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