博士学位論文審査報告書 Summary of Doctoral Thesis and Report of Examination

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Form J (F→O) 提出日 Submission Date: 2014 / 1 / 6

博士学位論文審査報告書

Summary of Doctoral Thesis and Report of Examination

研究科長殿：下記のとおり、審査結果を報告します。

To the Dean: We report the result of Examination for the Doctoral Thesis below.

学籍番号

Student ID 4009S003 ^学生氏名_Name Igarashi Zeliha Muge

和文題名

Title in Japanese 文化・宗教・ジェンダーから見たトルコ人－日本人国際結婚英文題名

Title in English

Intimacy Crossroads: Turkish-Japanese Transnational Marriages Through Lenses of Culture, Religion and Gender

記 1. 口述試験参加教員 Faculty Members Involved in Oral Examination

①審査委員会主査 Chief Referee of the Screening Committee 氏名

Name Roberts, Glenda S. 印専門分野

Field of Specialization

Cultural Anthropology 所属

Affiliated Institution

GSAPS, Waseda University 資格

Status

Professor 博士学位名

Ph.D. Title Earned

Doctor of Philosophy ^{取得大学名}

Name of Institution

Cornell University

②審査委員会副査（審査委員 1）Deputy Advisor (Member of Screening Committee 1) 氏名

Name Farrer, Gracia Liu 印専門分野

Sociology 所属

GSAPS, Waseda University 資格

Status

Ph.D. Title Earned

Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology ^{取得大学名} Name of Institution

University of Chicago

③審査委員 2 Member of Screening Committee 2 氏名

Name 工藤正子印専門分野

文化人類学所属

京都女子大学資格

Status

准教授博士学位名

Ph.D. Title Earned

博士（学術） ^{取得大学名}

Name of Institution

University of Tokyo

④審査委員 3 Member of Screening Committee 3 氏名

Name Slater, David 印専門分野

Cultural Anthropology 所属

Sophia University 資格

Status

Ph.D. Title Earned

Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology

取得大学名 Name of Institution

University of Chicago

⑤審査委員 4［該当者のみ］Member of Screening Committee 4 [if any]

氏名

Name 印専門分野

Field of Specialization 所属

資格 Status 博士学位名

Ph.D. Title Earned

取得大学名 Name of Institution

[時限 / Period] 1^st: 9:00-10:30, 2^nd: 10:40-12:10, 3^rd: 13:00-14:30, 4^th: 14:45-16:15, 5^th: 16:30-18:00, 6^th: 18:15-19:45, 7^th: 20:00-21:30

2. 開催日時 Date / Time 20 14 年(YY)/ 11 月(MM)/ 07 日(DD) ※ 2 :40 ～4 : 20 (Time)

3. 会場 Venue 19 号館(BLDG No.) 608 室（Room No.）

4. 合否判定 Result 合/Passed ・否/Failed ※該当する方に○ Circle as appropriate 5. 添付資料

Attached document(s)

５枚 pages

#和文 4,000 字程度、もしくは英文 1,500 語程度。ただし、論文題目のみは、和文・英文を併記すること。

#Approximately 4,000 characters in Japanese, or 1,500 words in English. The Doctoral Thesis title, however, must be written in both Japanese and English.

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Report of Ph.D. Dissertation Name: 4009S003Igarashi Zeliha Muge

Title: Intimacy Crossroads: Turkish-Japanese Transnational Marriages Through Lenses of Culture, Religion and Gender

Translation: 文化・宗教・ジェンダーから見たトルコ人－日本人際結婚国

Summary:

This study explores the phenomenon of transnational marriage between Japanese and Turkish middle- and upper-middle-class couples primarily living in Japan. It is a qualitative study, based on semi-structured interviews with 45 spouses and two Turkish Embassy officials, as well as participant observation, carried out between 2009- and 2013. The author, as a

member of the Turkish community in Japan, as well as being an individual who herself is in a transnational marriage with a Japanese, was able to use her linguistic and cultural skills to find participants for the study who would reveal to her the inner dynamics of these “intimacy crossroads” between Turkish and Japanese individuals in our globalized world.

Although the Turkish population in Japan is not large, and while Turkish-Japanese marriages are few in comparison with other nationalities such as Korean, Chinese, or Filipino, the author argues that there are some compelling reasons to study this particular sub-group of transnational marriages in Japan. The Turkish spouses that she studied were mostly highly skilled, from middle and upper-middle classes, in respected occupations, and she studied Turkish men in marriages with Japanese women as well as Turkish women married to Japanese men. Most existing studies of transnational marriages focus on marriages where the foreign spouse is female, because in the majority of Japanese transnational marriages, the marriage is between a Japanese male and a foreign female, so this study is an interesting contribution to the literature. Moreover, most of the extant literature focuses only on the narrative of the foreign spouse, whereas Igarashi includes narratives from Japanese spouses as well.

Igarashi further points out that within the subset of Japanese marriages to people of Islamic faith, Turkish marriages form an interesting example because although spouses from nations such as Iran or Pakistan are Muslim, the way in which the religion is practiced is highly influenced by both culture and social class. Turkish people, she argues, and especially urban dwelling middle and upper middle classes, exhibit a more secular approach to their faith, which is furthermore negotiated when the person becomes a long-term resident in Japan in a mixed faith marriage. As such, her findings add a new dimension to the discussion of Japanese transnational marriages to people of Muslim faith.

1. Table of Contents Chapter I

 Introduction

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 Transnational marriages

 Transnational marriages in Japan

 Conceptual Framework

 Significance of Study

 Research Objectives and Research Questions

 Organization of Study Chapter II

 Marriage

o Historical Evolution of Marriage and Family in Japan o Marriage in Contemporary Japan (out?)

o Historical Evolution of Marriage and Family in Turkey o Marriage in Contemporary Turkey (out?)

o Gender relations and family dynamics in comparison

 Gender Gap and Religion

 Gender roles within the family

 Relations with in-laws

 Structural Differences related to Marriage and Family

 Transnational Marriages

o Intersection of Migration, Gender and Social Class

o Cultural conflict and Marital Problems in Transnational Marriages

 Cultural conflict

 Intercultural communication and Language Barrier

 Social class

 Gender relations

 Sexuality

 Foreign Spouses’ Relations with the host society

 Relations with In-laws

 Childrearing

o Transnational Marriages in Japan Chapter III: Methodology

 Researcher

 Field Research

 Statistical Data

 Qualitative Data

 Participant Observation

Chapter IV: Forming Families

 Spouse Choices analyzed from Courtship to Marriage o Initial Encounter

o Communication and Language Barrier o Marriage Decision

o Social Pressures

 Gender Roles in the Family o Household finances

o Household chores

o The Breadwinner and the Country of Residence

 Cultural, Religious Differences and Social Class o Cultural and Religious Differences

o Legal Status of Turkish Spouses in Japan

o Perceptions on the Turkish Spouses’ Social Class

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Chapter V: Negotiating Differences in Married Life

 Intercultural Communication

 Relations with in-laws

o In-laws’ Reactions to Potential Foreign Spouses o Relations with in-laws after marriage

 Relations with Japanese in-laws

 Relations with Turkish in-laws o Family Ties

o Language Barrier and Communication Problems with in-laws

 Raising Bicultural Children o Name selection

o Language Choices and Schooling

o Citizenship, Cultural Identity and Socialization

o Transition to Parenthood: From “Husband and Wife” to “Father and Mother”

 Sexuality

o Turkish Sexuality o Japanese Sexuality

o Sexuality of Turkish – Japanese Couples

 Living Standards Redefined through Living Space

Chapter VI: Religious Practice and Identity Construction in Marriage

 Politicization of Religion in Turkey

 Turkish Formulation of Religiosity

 Japanese Perceptions on Islam

 Religious Rituals in Couples’ Lives Chapter VII: Conclusion

 Summary

 What Matters in Turkish – Japanese Transnational Marriages?

 What is worth fighting for in Turkish – Japanese Transnational Marriages?

 Religiosity and Religious Practices

 Significance and contribution of research

Appendix I - Details of informants

Appendix II: Interviewee Information Form Appendix III: Interview Questions

References

2. Content

Chapter One introduces the definition of transnational marriage and situates it in Japan’s contemporary demographics. The author discusses the conceptual framework of transnational marriage, the significance of this study, her research objectives and questions, and the organization of the thesis.

Chapter Two consists of a review of the literature on marriage in Japan and Turkey, gender relations and family dynamics, transnational marriage and internal dynamics such as cultural conflict, intercultural

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communication problems, social class, gender relations, sexuality, the relations of the foreign spouse with the host society, and childrearing, as well as previous studies on transnational marriage in Japan.

Chapter Three discusses the methodology the author utilized, and also discusses reflexively the relationship of the author to her respondents and her fieldwork in general.

The bulk of the author’s original findings from her in-depth qualitative interviews are in Chapters 4-6.

In Chapter Four, the author discusses the topic of family formation, pressures to marry, gender roles within the family, cultural and religious differences between the spouses, and perceptions of each others’

social class.

Chapter Five takes as its topic how couples negotiate their differences in marital life, the problems that arise in communication, relationships with in-laws, raising bi-cultural children and the importance of name selection, schooling choices for children, the issue of which religious rituals or practices to participate in or pass on, and sexuality. In particular, Turkish spouses tend to note the lack of a couples culture in Japan which leads to a parallel-track homo-social practices for men and women. This in turn sometimes leads to a loss of intimacy and communication in the marriage, the author finds. Another important finding in this chapter is that of gendered perceptions of living space, which becomes a serious issue of contention for some of the married couples (where the wife was Turkish) as it is related to notions of social class and psychological feelings of comfort or at-home-ness for women in the society.

Chapter Six discusses religious practice and identity construction in the marriage. Here the author brings up the politicization of religion in Turkey, her Turkish respondents’ views on their own religiosity as it was practiced at home and in Japan, Japanese spouses’ understandings of Islam, and the rituals in which the Turkish spouses engage, such as mosque attendance or funerals. The author found that death rituals are particularly sensitive areas for these transnational migrants, as the rituals in the two cultures are vastly different, and even if migrants attempt to reproduce the ritual of their culture, it ends up being a pale facsimile. Hence, the author notes, couples tend not to think ahead about these most sensitive and least negotiable aspects of the transnational marriage experience.

In the Conclusion, the author recapitulates her major findings vis a vis Turkish and Japanese transnational marriages, emphasizing the importance of social class on religiosity and the diversity within Muslims and the difference that makes in terms of practices within marriage. She also notes that similarities in

Japanese and Turkish cultures in regard to gender roles leads to a relatively smooth initial transition to marriage. Limitations of the study (the author’s being a member of the studied community) and possible future research topics (on living space and social integration/identity, as well as on death rituals and identity) are also noted.

3. Thesis Committee’s Evaluation

The thesis committee agreed that the topic of transnational marriage between Turkish and Japanese people is a worthwhile subject of inquiry, and that through this study with its findings about the particular approaches and issues these middle- and upper-middle class Turks bring to the cross-cultural negotiating table of the intimate relationship that is marriage, the author has made a significant contribution to the literature on transnational marriages in Japan. We all appreciated the substantial fieldwork that the author had done, and we felt that her narratives from these people’s lives, as well as her ethnographic descriptions of participant observation settings, enriched our understanding of the phenomenon of transnational marriage.

Yet, there were some shortcomings which we asked the author to address. They are as follows:

1. First, we felt that the author needed to go further in situating her group of Turkish respondents in the broader literature on Turkish people in transnational marriages and in transnational settings, while paying attention to

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social class. We also felt that she needed to more thoroughly distinguish what makes the group she studied different from other transnational marriages in Japan, through a more critical literature review of transnational marriage.

2. We also asked her to think more deeply about the religiosity of the Turkish migrants, and what aspects of their religious or cultural heritage, if any, they wish to transmit to their children, and how this differs from other Islamic migrants in Japan.

3. We felt that the thesis could be better organized so that all components fit together more rationally, and that the central focus be emphasized from the start, with a robust definition of transnational marriage.

The author understood our line of reasoning in the defense and was able to satisfactorily respond to our queries and to address these in the corrected version of her dissertation. The committee was in unanimous agreement that Ms. Igarashi should be awarded the doctorate for her work, which offers a window onto a group of marriages in contemporary Japan that had until now remained unopened. By doing so, she brought our attention to the diversity that exists among marriages between Japanese and people of Islamic faith, and heightened our understanding of the role of social class and gender in these marriages, where the partners tended to be more on an even playing field than those in the transnational marriages that have previously been studied.

Respectfully submitted,

Glenda S. Roberts, Ph.D.

Professor GSAPS

Waseda University