Neither Japanese nor Tibetan: identity negotiation of Tibetan youth in Japan

Abstract

There are approximately 200 Tibetan immigrants in Japan, mostly exchange students who came from either Tibet or India. Being not recognized by the international society, Tibetans in diaspora found themselves in a liminal space labeled as “foreigner” and have been trying to construct a Tibetan “imagined community”, while adapting to the host-country. Drawing the inspiration of the present ethnographic study from my personal experience, growing up as the daughter of Italian and Tibetan parents in Italy, I attempted to understand how Tibetan youth living in Japan, a country fostering cultural homogeneity, negotiate their sense of belonging. The research will investigate the spaces of “Tibetan-ness” in Japan, and then analyze, through a post-modern theoretical framework, Tibetan youth’s response to intercultural influence, by exploring how multiple identities are (re)produced and negotiated. Furthermore, I will mark a distinction between first and second generations, with particular mention to the “in-betweenness” of Tibetan-Japanese mixed cultural heritage students. The fieldwork I conducted in the area of Tokyo, between April and October 2019, shows how the notion of “Tibetan-ness” itself can be undermined, revealing the existence of a dynamic and creative narrative at the local level - what Maher calls a “subcultural capital”- which differs from national level discourses on ethnic homogeneity, and promises new generations a more inclusive society to live in.