Abstract
In The Politics of International Marriage in Japan, authors Viktoriya Kim, Nelia Balgoa, and Beverley Anne Yamamoto bring together their respective studies on three groups of foreign-born spouses in Japan—those from the former Soviet Union (FSU), the Philippines, and western countries. The outcome is a rather ambitious volume that covers various aspects of couples’ lives—how they married, loved, worked, raised children, and, in some cases, ended the marriage. The topic of international marriage and marriage migration has become a growing interdisciplinary field of study, and this volume makes interesting contributions in this area, grounded in specific cultural contexts of Japan.
The book consists of an introduction followed by eight chapters. In the introduction, the authors state that the volume aims to “highlight the complex interplay of national, cultural, and ethnic boundaries, as well as gender norms, that together construct international marriages in Japan at multiple levels” (p. 2). To achieve this aim, each author brings data they collected independently through in-depth interviews and field observations. Yamamoto interviewed 12 Japanese–Western couples (nine of which were Japanese wife/foreign-born husband couples), Kim interviewed 48 women from the FSU and 20 Japanese men married or engaged to women from the FSU, and Balgoa interviewed 23 Filipinas. The study participants were primarily residing in the Kansai region, which includes Osaka, but Kim and Balgoa also interviewed people in Tokyo and Nagoya, respectively.
The volume’s most unique aspect involves the use of the dichotomous uchi (inside or internal)-soto (outside or external) framework. In Japan, this framework has been used to demonstrate the boundary between Japanese and non-Japanese people (although the authors show that multiple categories exist between “pure Japanese” and “pure non-Japanese”). They apply the uchi/soto concept as they develop typologies and analyses throughout the book. For example, the authors suggest four categories describing where couples met and how they decided to live in Japan (Chapter 3): (1) multiple-choice couples (MCC), which met outside Japan and included a soto-oriented Japanese spouse; (2) basic option couples (BOC), which met outside Japan and included an uchi-oriented Japanese spouse; (3) default option couples (DOC), which met inside Japan and included an uchi-oriented Japanese spouse; and (4) open choice couples (OCC), which met inside Japan and included a soto-oriented Japanese spouse. Soto orientation among Japanese spouses meant that they were open to living elsewhere, whereas uchi orientation meant that they prioritized Japan as the country of residence. MCC and OCC included mostly couples with western or FSU partners; BOC and DOC were mostly couples including an FSU or Filipina partner. DOC were especially foreign-born wives who had met their Japanese partners through the Japanese entertainment industry.
Going beyond stories of the couples’ beginning, the volume covers other aspects of the marriages. The authors examine household arrangements (Chapter 5), discussing whether immigrant wives work and how those who do have to negotiate with their husbands. They explore immigrant spouses’ public life paths and how they utilize the social and cultural capital they accumulate over time (Chapter 6). They tell stories about how Filipina and FSU immigrant wives overcome negative stereotypes and assumptions that they are low-skilled workers, entertainers, or sex workers and achieve upward mobility and “respectability” as business owners, educators, or community leaders.
In contrast, western spouses often benefited from their cultural capital as English speakers and their privilege as white migrants. In illustrating the couples’ parenting and educational strategies (Chapter 7), the authors divide them into two groups: those with children in the Japanese school system and those with children attending international schools. The former category comprises mostly couples from the uchi-oriented BOC and DOC categories, and the latter is primarily those from the soto-oriented MCC and OCC categories. These parents must reconcile their desire to raise their children with bilingual skills and a bicultural heritage with the immediate need to integrate into Japanese society and develop financial capacity. In the last chapter, the authors highlight cases where international marriages dissolved. In a context where joint custody is rare, foreign-born spouses feel especially vulnerable regarding their post-divorce legal standing and access to their children.
Along with this inclusive account of international marriage in the contemporary Japanese context, I find the volume’s analysis of previous literature on marriage migration and a historical periodization of post-Second World War international marriages in Japan very useful. The authors show that Japanese women’s international marriage to western men, international intimacy born out of Japan’s economic expansion, and foreign-born women crossing borders to marry rural bachelors formed the preamble to further diversification of international marriage. As the volume juxtaposes the stories of western spouses and those from the FSU, who have previously been understudied compared with Filipinas, it extends discussions on different immigrants’ ethnoracial attributes, social locations, cultural capital, and gender politics. The soto/uchi framework leads readers to recognize intriguing points of tension and harmony within couples, such as how the couples present themselves when socializing with those outside the family.
However, the volume also rehashes themes regarding immigrant marriages that have been debated ad nauseum—namely, immigrant women’s agency, motivations for marriage, and the question of love—without much update of the existing discourse. In their discussion of previous literature, the authors use a photography analogy that, unfortunately, feels convoluted despite being an interesting attempt, and the discussions of citizenship and the state’s role in immigrants’ lives are frustratingly hollow. Nevertheless, overall, this book would be appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as for general readers who are new to the phenomenon of international marriage in Japan.