Mini-Series A Passion for Japan: The Long Journey to Calling Japan Home more

Sun, May 22, 15:30-16:30 Asia/Tokyo

For foreign residents of Japan, when and why do we make the transition from just saying we live in Japan to calling this country “home”? According to Lysgaard’s model (Lysgaard, 1955), expatriates go through four stages of culture shock: honeymoon, frustration, adjustment, and acceptance. It would be an oversimplification, however, to assign specific time frames to each stage or assume that everyone advances to the acceptance stage. Progression through these stages has numerous variables, including language proficiency, home country (e.g., low context or high context culture), and, perhaps most importantly, finding an ikigai in the new country. Ikigai (生き甲斐) is roughly translated as “a reason for being,” or more simply, “why we get up in the morning.” In this panel discussion, the presenters will share how a passion for a particular aspect of Japanese culture helped them not only to reach the acceptance stage, but also to feel accepted by their hosts. These respective passions include how: ● rooting for the local baseball team led to being involved with the Japanese sports media ● a fascination with Japanese matsuri (festivals) led to being granted behind-the-scenes access to one of Japan’s biggest festivals ● an interest in Japanese literature led to documenting discrimination against Hansen’s disease patients in Japan Individual presentations will be followed by an open discussion on finding your ikigai and making Japan (or any foreign country) feel like home.