Intimate Encounters: Filipina Women and the Remaking of Rural Japan

by Lieba Faier

This groundbreaking study explores the recent dramatic changes brought about in Japan by the influx of a non-Japanese population, Filipina brides. Lieba Faier investigates how Filipina women who emigrated to rural Japan to work in hostess bars-where initially they were widely disparaged as prostitutes and foreigners-came to be identified by the local residents as “ideal, traditional Japanese brides.”Intimate Encounters, an ethnography of cultural encounters, unravels this paradox by examining the everyday relational dynamics that drive these interactions. Faier remaps Japan, the Philippines, and the United States into what she terms a “zone of encounters,” showing how the meanings of Filipino and Japanese culture and identity are transformed and how these changes are accomplished through ordinary interpersonal exchanges. Intimate Encounters provides an insightful new perspective from which to reconsider national subjectivities amid the increasing pressures of globalization, thereby broadening and deepening our understanding of the larger issues of migration and disapora.

Genres: Ethnography, Nonfiction

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sean Chou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read.

I found chapter 4 Kindred subjects to be particularly interesting, for its exploration of 'ii oyomesan' (ideal bride) discourse among Filipina brides who have migrated to marry their Japanese husbands in the Central Kiso region.

I would recommend this book for those interested in gender and sexuality in Japan, or more generally how they intersect with each other in the global economy and transnational flows. It offers an interesting perspective on why Filipina women choose to become oyomesan, and how everyday practices facilitate ambivalent sites of power and resistance. It would have been interesting to read more about the mixed-race children from these marriages and how they have negotiated their cross-cultural identities, but perhaps that topic could be tackled in another book.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ethnography. All too often, when you hear about Filipinas working in Japan, they're mostly seen as prostitutes and/or victims. While that does indeed happen, Faier shows that's not always the case. (She also makes the point that Filipinas who work in bars do not have sex with their patrons as part of their jobs.) These women do try to have agency in improving their lives amidst isolation, restrictions from the Japanese government, and condescending/discriminatory attitudes from their Japanese neighbors and even from fellow Filipinas, among other issues.