The media & Japanese children in diaspora: understanding Japanese families’ media consumption & everyday lives in London
This study examined the media consumption of the Japanese sojourners in London which is the largest Japanese diaspora in Europe. Japanese sojourners are sent by their companies and tend to upgrade their lifestyles supported by the employers. Eleven Japanese sojourners' families who had children aged five to eight participated in this study, being visited every two months over a year Using ethnographic methods in which in-depth interviews, participant observations, and digital photos by the children and me were used, the data were gathered. Life-course analysis was also used to examine to understand how and why they use particular media. The research aims are to understand the relationship between their media consumption and the everyday lives of Japanese sojourners' families in London, explore children and mothers' identities while they sojourn, study their particular media consumption patterns, critically analyse the media products which the families consumed and experienced, and investigate the mothers' childrearing in a host country where they consider their children's future in Japan, including the significance of language. Through the ethnographic research which produced rich data, the children and mothers' changing identities, focusing on hybrid identities were studied. Hybrid identities were examined through the hidden voices of those women who devote themselves into home and children's talks and their everyday lives. Additionally, their particular media consumption patterns led to rethink today's roles of Japanese diasporic and global media in a diaspora, Britain and Japan's policies on multiculturalism, and urban environment where children live.
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