Description
Book SynopsisAn ethnography about 'Japan outside of Japan' - specifically, how Japanese families on corporate re-assignment in the United States recreate their homeland within domestic spaces
Trade Review“Sawa Kurotani reveals the centrality of women’s domesticity to transnational mobility among Japanese families and families everywhere. She has a fine and affectionate ethnographic eye.”—Karen Kelsky, author of
Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams“Sawa Kurotani’s absorbing study offers new ethnographic insight into a common manifestation of globalization—the social bubbles created by corporate, government, and military families on foreign assignments. She sensitively analyzes how Japanese company wives in the U.S. work hard to maintain Japanese domesticity and how these efforts inadvertently but powerfully forge a new self-awareness.
Home Away from Home teaches us a valuable lesson about how the local is constituted within the global.”—William W. Kelly, editor of
Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan“For anyone interested in transnational identities and the domestic work of globalisation this book makes fascinating reading. . . . A tantalising invitation to explore further the intimates spaces of dislocation and transnational angst, particularly as felt by women.” -- Cory Taylor * Asian Studies Review *
“Sawa Kurotani offers an engaging and persuasive account of how the
kaigai-chûzai experience, or corporate overseas posting, affects Japanese housewives. . . . There is much to recommend in this enjoyable and elegantly written study.” -- Ronald P. Loftus * Journal of Gender Studies *
"
Home Away from Home offers an interesting and highly readable account of small communities of Japanese expatriate wives in the United States. . . . These are indeed interesting findings which add to our understanding of aspects of the very complex phenomenon of globalisation." -- Rumi Sakamoto * The Australian Journal of Anthropology *
"Sawa Kurotani's ethnographic work . . . is . . . a delightfully easy read for anyone interested in the ideology of Japanese domestic life. . . . Revealing. . . . Fascinating." -- Colin Donald * Daily Yomiuri *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
1. Domesticating the Global 1
2. Managing Transnational Work 41
3. Homemaking Away from Home 71
4. Playing Her Part 113
5. On Vacation 152
6. Home Again 195
Notes 221
References 225
Index 235
