Leaving Home - Media Images of Japanese Expatriates

Abstract

This thesis aims to deduce and analyse the media images of Japanese expatriates faced by those who are considering such a career path. The foundation of this study the author’s personal experiences with young Japanese academics, background studies of the evolution of Japanese working society and the previous field of study of the kikokushijo. A theoretical framework comprised of a subset of Edgar Schein’s model for the study of organisational culture was formulated. The cultural artefacts to be determined were, the rituals, myths and heroes expressed in the media. To expedite this research, articles were sampled from Japan’s three largest newspapers from the last five years. Nine articles were selected as the most relevant to this thesis. The artefacts yielded by the analysis consisted of rituals of academic diligence and enduring of adversity, tales of successful elites and lonely road-warriors. Finally, the heroes were identified as returners who leveraged their experience for domestic benefit. It was therefore concluded that the images promoted by the media corresponded to conservative values and a Japan centric world-view. Furthermore it was theorised that this was related to the concepts of giri, and amae, and in turn contingent upon the dualistic Japanese approach to expression of sentiments.