1st Edition
Transnational Faiths Latin-American Immigrants and their Religions in Japan
Japan has witnessed the arrival of thousands of immigrants, since the 1990s, from Latin America, especially from Brazil and Peru. Along with immigrants from other parts of the world, they all express the new face of Japan - one of multiculturality and multi-ethnicity. Newcomers are having a strong impact in local faith communities and playing an unexpected role in the development of communities. This book focuses on the role that faith and religious institutions play in the migrants' process of settlement and integration. The authors also focus on the impact of immigrants' religiosity amidst religious groups formerly established in Japan. Religion is an integral aspect of the displacement and settlement process of immigrants in an increasing multi-ethnic, multicultural and pluri-religious contemporary Japan. Religious institutions and their social networks in Japan are becoming the first point of contact among immigrants. This book exposes and explores the often missed connection of the positive role of religion and faith-based communities in facilitating varied integrative ways of belonging for immigrants. The authors highlight the faith experiences of immigrants themselves by bringing their voices through case studies, interviews, and ethnographic research throughout the book to offer an important contribution to the exploration of multiculturalism in Japan.
Biography
Dr Hugo Córdova Quero holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley, with allied field at the Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California at Berkeley. He received a Master in Divinity from ISEDET University in Buenos Aires (1998) and a Master of Arts in Systematic Theology and (Post)Colonial studies from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley (2003). He was Professor of Ecumenism at the Santa Maria de Guadalupe Roman Catholic Seminary in Buenos Aires (1998-2001) and visiting scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2006). He was visiting researcher at the Center for Lusophone Studies, Sophia University (Jesuit), in Tokyo, Japan (2006-2009). His areas of research include theology, ethnic studies, gender studies, critical theories (feminist, queer, and post-colonial), and cultural studies. Dr Rafael Shoji holds a Ph.D. from the Leibniz University of Hanover (Germany) and developed postdoctoral research in the Pontifical University of Sao Paulo and at Nanzan University. He is a co-founder and researcher of the Center for the Study of Oriental Religions (CERAL) at the Pontifical University of Sao Paulo. He has published on Japanese religions in Brazil, Japanese Brazilian culture and comparative studies on Buddhism and Christianity. As a Japanese Studies fellow of the Japan Foundation at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture (Nagoya, Japan) he was recently engaged in research on the religions among Brazilians in Japan, especially the reinterpretation of Christianity.
"..this edited volume provides a very important contribution to the study of religion in East Asia and is highly recommended to scholars in this field as well as to all those interested in transnational religion and in the broader issue of cultural hybridity."- Ugo Dessì, Cardiff University
