Form7(by MS Word data)
Grant No.

16－ ７８

Research Report
Name : Dipesh Kharel
Organization (at the time of the grant): The University of Tokyo
Title of Research: A Case Study of the Nepali Migration from Malma Village to Japan

Purpose of Research:（400 words）
The purpose of my research is to examine the unique characteristics of Nepali migrants working as cooks in
Indian curry restaurants in Japan. The category of "skilled labor (cook)" in Japanese immigration law provided
the basis for Nepali migrants to work legally in Indian curry restaurants in Japan. There are already more than3000 Nepali-owned Indian curry restaurants in Japan, including 500 Nepali restaurants in Tokyo, alone. Recently,Nepali restaurants have been spreading rapidly to smaller towns in Japan such as Abashiri in Hokkaido and therate of Nepali migration to Japan has risen accordingly. Surprisingly, more than 1800 Nepalis have migrated toJapan from Malma, a rural Nepali village of 6400 residents, to work in Nepali restaurants within the last fewyears. Nowadays the local people have nicknamed their village ‘Little Japan’, as so many people from the village
are working in Japan and sending back a huge amount of remittances. However, the process of migration is stilldifficult. Each of these migrants paid US$ 15,000 to agent to get work visa to enter Japan. By conducting
multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork both in Japan as well in Nepal this research will answer the following
questions:• How have so many Nepalis from Malma village have been able to migrate in Japan? Why did they decide tomigrate to Japan even though they had to pay US$15,000, and how could they afford to pay this money• What have been the social consequences for their lives, their families, and their villages since they migrated toJapan?
• What kinds of social relationships did they develop with the larger Japanese society?
• What are the impacts of the remittances on their families and the village at the micro and macro levels?
Nepali migration to Japan is a relatively recent phenomenon; however it has been increasing rapidly
within the last few years. Nepalis immigrants in Japan have increased by 29.4% from about 42,346 in 2014 to54,346 in 2015, making them the largest South Asian community in the country. Despite the rapid growth, theNepalis are perhaps the least understood of all of Japan’s immigrant minorities. In this context, my research result
provides an opportunity for Japanese as well as global society to understand better the Nepali immigrants’situation in contemporary Japan. The research is original because it investigates the emerging phenomenon ofNepali immigration to Japan which may be useful in the formulation of comprehensive polices that would allow
Japan and other countries to benefit from transnational migration. In addition, academically this research isimportant as it explore the causes, processes, and social consequences of Nepali migration to Japan with the statusof "skilled labor (cook)" which may be useful in the development of migration theory.

Content/Methodology of Research:（800 words）
Field research for this dissertation was carried out in Japan and Nepal intermittently from December 2008 toSeptember 2017, utilizing a video camera as a primary research tool to document both Nepali immigrants inJapan and their families in Nepal. The result is a multi-sited ethnography (Marcus 1995), based on ethnographic
audio-visual data on both local and transnational activities. In the context of migration studies, I have been
inspired by Watson (1975; 1979), who advocated the necessity to investigate the people and their families on bothsides (Watson 1979: 2-4), and who actually conducted fieldwork both in Hong Kong and the UK in his own
research on Chinese migration to the UK.
Methodologically, this dissertation is original in combining filming with conventional ethnography,
suggesting ideas about how visual research methods can be applied to the study of transnational migration. After I
studied visual anthropology at Tromso University, Norway, I was inspired to apply filming techniques toscientific research. In my studies at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and The University of Tokyo, I learned
anthropological and sociological approaches to the issue of political, economical and socio-cultural globalization
throughout the world. In this research, I applied a methodology which blends ethnography with visual researchmethods to study transnational migration. I used my camera to connect Nepali restaurant workers in Japan andtheir families in Nepal and explore their experiences of everyday life based on Geertz’s reconceptualization ofseeing things “from the native point of view” (1983) in the context of transnational migration. Geertz alsoemphasizes that an ethnographer should provide “thick description” (1973). He points out:
The claim to attention of an ethnographic account does not rest on its author’s ability to capture primitive
facts in faraway places and carry them home like a mask or carving, but on the degree to which he isable to clarify what goes on in such places, to reduce the puzzlement— what manner of men are these?
(1973: 16)
In this respect it is important to note that the camera helped me record ethnographic footage of Nepali immigrants
in Japan and their families in Nepal, which provides a base for writing thick descriptions of their local andtransnational activities. The ethnographic footage provides information about their lives through their own voices
and activities, based on their understandings of their world, which may not be possible with verbal records alone.
Furthermore, following Sarah Pink (2001), I was able to record in moving images the full actuality of things forwhich words are inadequate (Bateson and Mead 1942): cooking skills and techniques, the details of the nan
making processes, techniques for using the hot oven, the workers’ conversation and social life around the kitchenareas, and their emotions, feeling, friendships and hostilities and passing sympathies and dislikes. All of these
could be recorded by my video camera, enhancing my understanding of social situations in restaurants.
While conducting fieldwork, the visual method also helped me to develop rapport with immigrants inJapan and their families in Nepal. I recorded film of Nepali immigrants’ lives in Japan and screened it on mylaptop for their family members in Nepal. While screening, I observed their reactions to the video and filmed thatas well. Similarly, I recorded the lives of the migrants’ families in Nepal and screened that for my informants inJapan. I found these video screenings were very useful to evoke comments, memories, and discussions that also
provided a very useful understanding of the immigrants’ previous backgrounds, their social networks, and themigration process. I therefore used the visual techniques both as a medium of enquiry and communication withinformants, and as a way of obtaining more information from them.
The camera also provided me with great opportunities to increase my understanding through the process

of reviewing, together with informants, film recorded in different social settings in Japan and Nepal. During myfieldwork, I managed to review important footage with informants at times, which helped me obtain a more
complete idea of a particular situation. In addition, after the fieldwork, transcribing data from ethnographic
footage to text gave me another opportunity to refresh my memory by reviewing films of my informants,
including their social spaces and activities in different social situations. The essential point is that if I had had nocamera, I could not have reviewed the situations I had observed. Certainly, transcribing more than 600 hours ofethnographic footage into text was very time-consuming and took me several months. However, through theprocess, I learned much about the correspondence between film and ethnographic notes on the one hand, andbetween ethnographic film and monograph on the other (Omori 1988).
Beside visual research method, I collected data using in-depth interview methods by utilizing Creswell’s
concept of qualitative inquiry (2012), talking directly with the immigrants, going to their homes or places of work,and allowing them to tell their stories. I have conducted research in at-least 30 Nepali restaurants in Japan (Tokyo,Kyoto, Osaka, Oita and Hokkaido) to document their restaurant business. I also made 15 case studies and 40
in-depth interviews with Nepali restaurants workers in Japan and their families in Nepal. In addition, I haveconducted 20 in-depth interview with Japanese people who are interconnected to Nepali immigrants’ community.

Conclusion/Observation（400 words）
Based on my eight-year long multi-sited visual ethnographic fieldwork at both ends of the migration chain, in themigrants’ place of origin and their destination, this research has explored the causes, processes and consequencesof Nepali migration from Malma to Japan and demonstrated the complex relationship between social networks,migration and social change, focusing on transnational ties. The result of this research should be seen as an
attempt to understand the migration from Malma to Japan within a wider time frame. Historically speaking,Malma migrants have transformed themselves from peasants to lahures (army) and from lahures to cooks andbeyond. Until the 1980s, the majority of young men were leaving the village to travel to India to become lahures,and remittances from lahures were perceived as the prime means of improving one’s socio-economic position in thevillage. Malma became known as a lahure village. However, after the development of new social networks andforms of social capital from the early 1990s, the majority of the young people from the village have been working ascooks in Nepali restaurants in Japan, to the extent that the village is now locally known as “Little Japan”. Theirdreams of gaining social mobility have also been connected to Japan. By following the history of the village’s
foreign employment tradition, the research has demonstrated how the village has changed from a typical peasantcommunity in the hills of Nepal to an emigrant community.