Review in the International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, October 11, 2003

by Professor Kenneth Ruoff, Portland State University

Theodore C. Bestor, Patricia G. Steinhoff, and Victoria L. Bestor, eds. Doing Fieldwork in Japan. University of Hawaii Press, 2003. $22.95.

This book is a gem. Intended as a guide for individuals seeking to conduct research in Japan in the social sciences or cultural studies, Doing Fieldwork in Japan not only accomplishes that goal beautifully but also serves as an invaluable and entertaining introduction to the rules of Japanese society that will be of interest to a wide range of readers. Here is a chance to learn about the customs that govern social interaction in Japan from bright, articulate, and, yes, even humorous scholars for whom mastering and implementing these rules was absolutely essential to the accomplishment of major research projects that earned them positions as respected commentators on Japan.

The book consists of twenty essays by scholars who describe the challenges they faced in conducting fieldwork in Japan. It also includes an introductory chapter and a useful appendix titled “Digital Resources and Fieldwork” for those seeking reliable information about Japan through the Internet.

There are several passages with the potential to make the reader laugh aloud. Consider the anthropologist Robert J. Smith’s anecdote about how, as a graduate student doing an ethnographic study in 1951 of a Shikoku village (where, as the only individual who owned a camera, he was promptly appointed the village’s “official photographer”), he was scolded by a shop owner in a neighboring city for bringing photos of a cremation for development. It was the bereaved husband himself who had requested that Smith photograph his wife’s funeral (and Smith felt uneasy about the assignment), but the shop owner simply knew Smith as the young man who dropped off images of all sorts of personal aspects of village life for development: “[W]hen I went back to pick up the prints, the owner shook his head and said, ‘Even cremations!’ He had printed my photographs of weddings, memorial services, and agricultural activities, but this time it was clear that he thought that I had gone beyond the pale.”

It is the contributors’ willingness to share personal anecdotes about their efforts to navigate diverse situations in Japan (including examples of errors in social etiquette that proved costly) that makes the book so readable.

Most individuals who have visited Japan even just once learn that introductions are essential to opening various doors, but do foreigners always understand the mutual obligations involved between the person who has received an introduction and the individual who provided the introduction? The editors stress, “[S]uch introductions involve the standard Japanese cultural practice of borrowing trust from other people in order to gain access to a new situation, which carries complex obligations to act responsibly and not misuse or damage the trust.”

Readers also learn of the tricky compromises that fieldworkers make (and struggle over) in order to achieve results in Japan. Helen Hardacre is presently the Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society at Harvard University, and this makes all the more intriguing her account of fieldwork in the mid 1970s on the new religion Reiyukai: “As a feminist, the self-effacement and subordination expected in female speech grated on me for a long time. I hated even to pronounce the answers expected of me as a young woman in Reiyukai to such simple questions as ‘Will you go?’ Hai, mairasete itadakimasu (Yes, I will be caused-to-be-allowed-to go [humble].”

Hardacre and the other scholars describe the results-oriented roles that they assumed in order to finesse various Japanese social situations. Far from portraying Japanese society as impenetrable to outsiders, these scholars’ accounts (for all the mistakes they made along the way) show that it is possible for an outsider to collect all sorts of research data in Japan and to present it in an independent, critical manner (in other words, to sort out the official line, or tatemae, from what is actually happening, the honne).

It is important to understand that almost all of the researchers featured in this book were non-native speakers of Japanese who, while they struggled with the language, nonetheless conducted most of their research in Japanese. Obviously Japan is far more accessible to those with language ability.

In some cases, one’s status as an outsider can provide slight advantages (these advantages should not be exaggerated, but they do exist in certain situations) in achieving access not enjoyed by the Japanese themselves. Particularly interesting, however, were the accounts by American researchers of Japanese descent. Since racially they appear to be Japanese, these individuals face a complex situation in Japan. Native Japanese initially expect them to behave fully in a Japanese manner even though Japan (including the language) is no less foreign to Japanese-American researchers than to other scholars from abroad. As much as Japan is moving toward becoming a multi-ethnic society, issues of race and ethnicity are still problematic to those who do not fit easily into predetermined categories.

The reason that this book recommends itself to all non-natives who set foot in Japan is that whenever one visits or lives in a foreign country, even as a casual tourist, one inevitably conducts “fieldwork.” Only a tiny minority of travelers pen accounts of their experiences, but just about everyone shares stories of their foreign experiences (“fieldwork”) with family, friends, and colleagues. Whatever the goals of your visit to Japan, this book will enable you to be a more effective “fieldworker.”