Joshua Hotaka Roth, assistant professor of anthropology, is studying the return migration of second- and third-generation Japanese Brazilians to Japan.
New anthropology department member Joshua Hotaka Roth is close to completing his dissertation on a group of people many in this country may not even know exists. He has been studying the return migration of second- and third-generation Japanese Brazilians to Japan. "The encounter between Japanese and Japanese Brazilians presents a fascinating opportunity to learn about the ways ethnic identities are negotiated," Roth says.
Roth, who speaks both Japanese and Portuguese, has lived in Japan for about seven years in total. "I attended a Japanese university for one year after graduating from college," he says. "While living in a dormitory there, I met several Japanese Brazilians who were also studying there." Ethnic identity issues have a personal resonance for Roth, whose mother is Japanese.
Roth's findings about Japanese "return" migration from Latin America touch on many areas of study, including global flows of people, work, and culture. "In my dissertation, I describe how local dynamics affect the incorporation of global flows by exploring Japanese blue-collar workers' relations with Japanese Brazilian migrant workers. Conversely, I explore how global flows affect local dynamics by looking at the impact of immigration on discourses in the workplace," he explains.
"I did my research through participant-observation and interviews in the city of Hamamatsu, an industrial region of Japan. For several months, I worked in a car factory with roughly 2,000 Japanese and 500 foreign workers." Roth also did research on accidents and compensation.
"Many Japanese Brazilians have returned to Japan expecting to be welcomed or at least fit in. In Brazil, they had thought of themselves as "Japonês," but during their stay in Japan it becomes clear that the Japanese see them differently."
Roth did his graduate work at Cornell University and comes to the College from the University of Washington, where he taught for one year. This semester he is teaching Introduction to Cultural Anthropology and a course on migrations between Asia and the Americas. "I like Mount Holyoke a lot," he says. "The students seem dedicated and serious, with a positive attitude toward learning that makes teaching both challenging and rewarding. I wondered what a class that was all female would be like, but after only a couple of months, it already seems natural to me."
Roth's wife, Beth Notar, has done research in China and is a visiting assistant professor in the anthropology department. They are living in South Hadley.
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