Abstract
This paper explores the process of transnational family-making by Pakistani-Japanese couples. This type of mixed marriage increased in number during the 1990s following a rise in labor migration from Pakistan to Japan. Marriage with local Japanese women meant that the Pakistani men could acquire a visa to stay and work in Japan, a country which had thus far maintained a policy of restricting the immigration of “unskilled” laborers. Marrying local women, however, did not necessarily mean that these migrants became more rooted in Japan. Rather, my research reveals that in some cases, their family-making has expanded over national boundaries as their life course evolved. Based on longitudinal data collected since 1998, this paper examines the complexities involved in the transnational dispersal of family members and contends that this process reflects both the possibilities and the constraints that these mixed marriage families experience in Japan and beyond.
The paper starts with a brief description of labor migration from Pakistan to Japan during the late 1980s and the subsequent increase in the number of marriages with Japanese women. It then discusses two changes that took place during the early stages of marriage, namely the occupational change by the husbands from factory worker to transnational entrepreneur, and the process of religious transformation by the Japanese wives who convert to Islam upon marriage. This is followed by the examination of various challenges faced by the mixed couples in raising children in Japan as Muslims.
The paper then focuses on the emergence of the transnational family among the Pakistani-Japanese mixed marriages. After exploring the background to this shift, the paper points out the fluidity observed among this type of transnational family and illustrates the various patterns of the evolution of family-making. These reflect the changing needs and desires as well as the resources of each individual family. Lastly, the paper discusses how Pakistani husbands who continue to base their business in Japan locate themselves in Japan and in transnational space. To conclude, I will point out the implications that the case studies I describe have for understanding the complexities and uncertainties involved in constructing “home” in transnational space.
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Notes
- 1.
Male Muslims are permitted by their religion to marry the people of the Book, meaning mainly Christians and Jews. My interviewees included two Christians, both of whom converted to Islam upon marriage; however, there exist some cases in which women who were Christians prior to meeting their prospective husbands did not convert to Islam upon marriage.
- 2.
Although I have continued my follow-up interviews among Japanese women married to Pakistani migrants until the present, the data related to the women’s religious congregations that I present in this paper was gathered during participant observation I conducted mostly between 1998 and 2001. Since then, I have occasionally visited the same mosques and noticed that the members who congregated had changed considerably and the nationalities of the husbands of the Japanese female participants appeared more varied than before.
- 3.
The Hadith is the authoritative record of Prophet Muhammad’s exemplary speeches and actions.
- 4.
Concerning the complexity of reasons for the relocation of the Pakistani-Japanese couples in order to educate children abroad, see also Takeshita (2008) who conducted a survey in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
- 5.
I add that the husbands’ views are not fixed and may change as their stay in Japan is prolonged.
- 6.
The situation of the Japanese spouse, however, is more complex than it may appear, reflecting not only the power relationships in which gender and ethnicity intersect, but also the global hierarchy existing between the countries (Kudo 2007, p. 11–12).
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Kudo, M. (2014). Constructing “Home” across National Boundaries: A Case of Pakistani-Japanese Marriage. In: Zhang, J., Duncan, H. (eds) Migration in China and Asia. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8759-8_7
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