ABSTRACT

The greater New York City (NYC)1 area is home to the largest Japanese expatriate population in the world; unoffi cial estimates place the population at around 200,000. Generally, Japanese who go to NYC place themselves in two categories: corporate employees (chuuzaiin) and their families; or single, voluntary migrants-often called ‘lifestyle migrants.’ This chapter concerns this vast, latter group of people who desire a different kind of life from what is available to them in Japan and choose to leave home in search of self-fulfi llment. Among these migrants, NYC is perceived as a place where one can fulfi ll one’s personal potential and live a fuller and freer life than in Japan. Although most studies in the social sciences privilege material and economic need and disadvantaged social status as factors in explaining migration, I want to suggest instead that we take seriously the self-understanding of these migrants, who are consistently weighted with nonmaterial and noninstrumental concerns. In particular, this chapter examines how the everyday and its representations by migrants constitute a crucial site for understanding the meanings of and motivations for migration to NYC. By making prolifi c use of a wide range of media including magazines, books (memoirs), television programs, photography, and blogs, migrants construct aestheticized (and often idealized) representations of everyday life in NYC that are then circulated back to Japan; these are consumed by their compatriots and other migrants-to-be, as well as by those who will never make the same journey.