Visual anthropologist turns long lens on Nepali migration to Japan

The rise in the numbers of Nepalis migrating to Japan in recent decades has been phenomenal — and I think overshadowed by movement to countries like the US, UK and Australia. Today the Asian country is by far the top destination for students going abroad to earn degrees and, in many cases, a path to settlement in the country. 

I doubt that you would ever guess that the origin of today’s migration to Japan is colonial Britain’s presence in Nepal’s neighbour, India. I’ll leave today’s guest, visual anthropologist Dipesh Kharel, to draw out that thread for you. He says that the link has led to a current population of about 230,000 Nepalis in Japan — five times more than the number of Indian migrants. One sign of how fully settled they have become in their new country is that many women no longer return to Nepal to give birth. 

By the way, Dipesh mentions the Japanese currency, the yen, a couple of times. As of today, 1 Nepali rupee was worth 1.07 yen. 

Resources

About Dipesh Kharel

Nepali students’ destinations (2023-24)

Chapters

• 3:46 Dipesh's 1st migration to study
• 8:06 How Nepalis are different than other migrants in Japan
• 14:15 The Cook Connection is key to today's migration
• 21:38 Families start to bring children to Japan
• 27:16 Why Dipesh chose visuals to document Nepalis in Japan

Transcript

Dipesh: 0:00

In 1980s, some Indian businessmen open a curry restaurant in Japan. And that times they brought those in who already worked several years in India, mostly in Delhi, because they are cheaper and they are ready to go to Japan with a little more salary.

Marty: 0:37

Hi everyone. Welcome to Nepal Now: On the Move, where we talk to some of the hundreds of thousands of Nepalis who leave their homeland each year and sometimes to those returning. Occasionally we call in an expert, like today's guest, to help us understand all of this coming and going. The rise in the numbers of Nepali migrating to Japan in recent decades has been phenomenal. And I think overshadowed by movement to countries like the US, UK, and Australia. Today, the Asian country is by far the top destination for students going abroad to earn degrees, and in many cases, a path to settlement in the country. I doubt that you would ever guess that the origin of today's migration to Japan is colonial Britain's presence in Nepal's neighbour, India. I will leave today's guest, visual anthropologist Dipesh Kharel, to draw out that thread for you. He says that the link has led to a current population of about 230,000 Nepalis in Japan, five times more than the number of Indian migrants. One sign of how fully settled they have become in their new country is that many women no longer return to Nepal to give birth. By the way, Dipesh mentions the Japanese currency, the Yen, a couple of times. As of today, one Nepali rupee was worth 1.07 yen. If you like what you hear in today's episode, please consider subscribing to the show. It costs as little as $3 a month and will help me to cover some of the costs for editing Nepal Now and for our hosting platform. Finally, I want to give a shout out to Policy Entrepreneurs Incorporated, PEI, in Bakhundole, Kathmandu, to Kushi especially. She's been pushing the buttons each time we've used the recording space in the past few months. Also they have their own podcast you might want to check out Pods by PEI. Please listen now to my chat with Dipesh Kharel. Dipesh Kharel, welcome to Nepal Now: On the Move podcast.

Dipesh: 2:54

Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity. Invite me here and provide me opportunity to share my life experiences.

Marty: 3:03

I'm very happy to do it. We're going to talk about, as you say, your life experiences, your work focused on Nepal and Japan. But before we get to that point, as always, I'd like you to tell me about your life up until now where you were born, went to school, some work you've done to this point, however you want to describe it.

Dipesh: 3:26

I was born and raised in a very small village in the northeast of Kathmandu. And I grew up like in a boundaries of caste and ethnic communities. So that's taught me about the society. I studied in the local village until my SLC, school leaving certificate. Then I moved to Kathmandu for my high school and undergraduate study. After that I moved to Norway, where I studied visual anthropology and ethnographic and documentary filmmaking. That was 2004. And after finished my master's there, I back to Nepal and worked with UN and also government agency as a consultant doing research and also producing the documentary and audiovisual. In 2009, I moved to Japan for my second master's, interested to learn about the Asia Pacific regions to know more about the immigrant in Japan. Actually before I started master, I was already here from 2006-7-8, just for short visiting. That time I learned some kind of interesting, migration trend of Nepalese to Japan. That was also my interest, to further explore about these migrations through my study in, in Japan.

Marty: 4:54

And, sorry, just to say, you are now in Tokyo and you've been based in Tokyo?

Dipesh: 4:59

Yeah. I'm based in Tokyo. And, I finished my second master's in Japan, 2011, and 2012, for my PhD I actually, I was offered from the Oxford University and the same time I also got admission offer from the University of Tokyo. So I decided to remain in the University of Tokyo. The main reason it's my research field. I selected Nepalese immigrant in Japan. So since then, I've been doing research on Nepalese immigrant here. I finished my PhD in 2017. And after that I got the JSPs, Japan Society for Promotion of S cience postdoc fellowship, and also Wenner-Gren Foundation, the United States, postdoctoral fellowship. During that time also I focused on research on Nepalese immigrant in Japan. And after doing my postdoc, then I started to teach at the University of Tokyo. Now I'm teaching, I'm doing my research, and I'm staying here, so it is been almost 15 years I've been living in Japan.

Marty: 6:17

Oh, that's very interesting. I don't think too many people could say that they had an offer from Oxford University, but they declined it because they wanted to go somewhere else.

Dipesh: 6:28

Yes, because as a visual anthropologist I really wanted to record deeply about the life of Nepalese immigrant in Japan. That's the reason decided to remain at the University of Tokyo.

Marty: 6:42

I've been connected to Nepal for roughly 20 years. My wife is from here and actually, coincidentally, my mother-in-law has spent her career teaching Nepali to Japanese people. Wow. here in Kathmandu, so I have the connection with Nepal and a very tiny connection with Japan through my Nepali family as well. And one thing I've noticed also is that that connection seems to be growing, certainly in terms of migration, the number of Nepali students in particular. I know about some of this from watching some of your work online, some of your I don't know, do I call them documentaries? or videos that I saw online. The first question I wanted to ask you is, is it a unique experience for Nepalis in Japan? Or is it similar like if I was a Nepali going to Canada or to Australia, would I go through the same sorts of stages, experiences as I would if I was going to Japan? I guess I'm saying, is the migration experience the same for every country or somehow different for Japan?

Dipesh: 7:54

In principle if talking about the migrations maybe seems very similar. There is a cause of migrations, process of migrations, and social consequences of migrations. If we see the case in very deeper level, say the experience is something I found very unique. One reasons, Nepalese they are they are not like the Kanji-based countries. Traditionally the migrants worker in Japan from like China, then Korea and Taiwan, they were (from) like the Kanji-based country.

Marty: 8:27

Sorry, can you explain that term Kanji?

Dipesh: 8:30

Kanji is like a writing style Kanji Japanese words. For the communications, everything's written in the Kanji in Japan. So the experiences of the Chinese migrant workers, Korean migrant workers and migrants from Taiwan, it's different from the Nepalese. So linguistic, culturally, Nepal's migrant position is different from the traditional Kanji-based country.

Marty: 8:58

Okay.

Dipesh: 8:59

So that's keep them in a unique position in Japan. Migration process may be same, but the settlement process they look physically different, the language also culturally different. That make them something unique in Japan. Compared to the immigrant country in the US, Canada or in Australia (where) Nepalese they still can use maybe their basic English level proficiency to communicate with the people. In Japan in that sense it's difficult for them for the settlement and the social integrations, communications there are certain barriers to the host community.

Marty: 9:38

Would it be like saying they're more obviously outsiders to the culture, whereas someone from South Korea or China or another nearby country could more easily blend in?

Dipesh: 9:50

Yes, like the Chinese, South Korean they easily blend in to the Japanese society maybe, looking also. And then maybe similar little, food habit, or language. But for Nepalese, they (have a) distinct food habit. That position is challenging for them also, for Nepalese. Of course there is a segregation the host community, the Nepalese community, but the things becomes more easier because the growing number of Nepalese community. Like the new Nepalese migrant, maybe they don't need to directly deal with the Japanese society, Japanese communities, because there is already a large Nepalese community. They find the job, they find the place to stay, they find friends within the Nepali community.

Marty: 10:41

Okay. Okay.

Dipesh: 10:42

It's growing in a way as a parallel community. It is difficult to integrate in the host community, but the Nepalese have their own communities, parallel developing to the host society. So that's something's also different I found here. And of course if we talk about the migration process, maybe Japan now is easier compared to maybe US, maybe say UK or Australia. Mostly if you're talking about the students, now there are over 75,000 Nepalese students here in Japan, one of the fastest growing students community, foreign student community, in Japan now. Of course maybe the cost of migration compared to US, UK or Australia lower migration cost. And also for the students, lower academic requirements also sufficient to migrate to Japan compared to those other countries.

Marty: 11:43

Yeah, I remember seeing a few months ago the statistics of the Nepalese students emigrating, and I expected the number one country to be US or Australia, or not Canada, because I know Canada's cutting back a lot but then it was Japan by a very wide margin, like Japan is 40 or 50% higher than the next country in the list. So the number of students, Nepali students going to Japan, like you say, has really, really grown. For me, Japan has this reputation of still being this closed society, historically not so open to immigration. And I know I've been influenced by the stories of Koreans who have long had this relationship with Japan. But is it like that for Nepalis? Can it be a hostile place? Or is it just a place where, like you were saying, there are these parallel societies or cultures?

Dipesh: 12:50

Actually, if we look back to the history, Japan provided the free visas to the Pakistans and Bangladesh since 1987. But the Nepalese they never have such privilege to the free entry visa. It was a strict migration policy, and a closed migration policy. That's a very interesting story, how these big numbers of Nepalese able to migrate to Japan. That's also the reason something strike to me to start this research on Nepalese immigrant in Japan. Why such a big number of Nepalese? We don't have any kind of colonial relations network. But if we see data now, there are over like 230,000 Nepalese compared to Indians, five times more Nepalese here in Japan.

Marty: 13:46

Wow. That's very surprising! given the population between India and Nepal.

Dipesh: 13:50

Yes. And compared to Bangladeshi and the Pakistan maybe Bangladeshi around 25 (thousand). Compared to these South Asian neighbours, Nepalese numbers are really growing rapidly. The most interesting finding from my research actually, British colonization in India is very much connected to this recent flow of Nepalese migrant in Japan. So you, you may ask why.

Marty: 14:20

Yeah, of course. That seems like a very indirect link.

Dipesh: 14:23

If you know this Sugauli Treaty between Nepalese king and the East India company in 1860. So after that, a few Nepalese they started to go to India, recruited in the army, under the British government. That's from mostly the midwest part of Nepal, like Baglung, Magdi, Sangjya. Most (of) that flow, it's, it's first and second World Wars hundreds of thousands of young people they migrate to India to recruit in British Army. And that time the people who couldn't join the army because of physical reasons, age, they started to work in the Indian catering industry, mostly as cleaners and cook assistants. After several years work in the catering industry, they skill up their level as a professional cook. And in 1980s, some Indian businessmen open a curry restaurant in Japan. And that times they brought those Nepalis who already worked several years in India, mostly in Delhi, because they are cheaper and they are ready to go to Japan with a little more salary. It's the middle of 1980s. A few Nepalis, from that channel they could come to Japan. So that is the starting of Nepalese legal migration in Japan. Before that mostly they are the undocumented migrant. And after those few cooks come to Japan through this legal process, they stay a few years in Japan, they learn some business ideas and then they learn maybe little language skills. After they stay like a few years, they thinking to start their own business. That's from the early 2000s and a few Nepalis they able to open a restaurant, their own restaurant, Indo-curry restaurant. After that they started to bring more people from Nepal, as a cook. So that is a kind of network, Nepalese they established between Japan and Nepal, which I call the cook connection. So that cook connection provides the bridge (to) events like the current flow of Nepalese migration to Japan even these students migration to Japan because already around 2010, there are 13,000 Nepalese cook in Japan.

Marty: 17:11

That was fast! That's very quick growth.

Dipesh: 17:13

And you may (be) surprised, the Nepalese from that connection they established over like 4,000 Nepalese owned Indo-curry restaurant, not only in a big city, in Tokyo and Osaka, even like the small town across Japan. And those created more space for bringing more Nepalese. After that they started to bring their families, children, wife. Wife also started to work here. And they grow community. And in 2011, there was the great est earthquake in Japan. Until that time most of the Japanese languages school filled by the student from China, South Korea and Taiwan. But after the earthquake, students declined from those countries and language school in Japan they targeted countries like Nepal and Vietnam to recruit more students. So that is a kind of starting to bring students. And 2011, just around 2000 Nepalese student here. So now the number is over 75,000. Actually this current flow of Nepalese students also very much linked to this cook connection, because this cook connection already provided a lot of information, even in the village of Nepal, about the opportunities in Japan working opportunities, earning opportunities. So for the young peoples, it is easy to make decision to go Japan, because the information they got from the cook connection. All this current situations of Nepalese immigrant is very much connected to this cook connection social network.

Marty: 19:00

That's very interesting how it started with those Indian business people and then... and the growth has been phenomenal. So now the Nepalis who are there, are they starting to branch out? Can you identify other occupational areas where Nepalis are employed now, besides these restaurants?

Dipesh: 19:21

Now, they starting also like the grocery shops and some Nepalese they also now expanded business like they call the izakaya, drinking places, and some Nepali even expanding this business to the US, the South Korea and some European country this Indo-curry restaurant, this style of restaurant. So it's a huge influence of this restaurant business, of course in Nepalese community, but also to the host community. it's one of the biggest restaurant industry, ethnic restaurant industry, in Japan. In terms of the numbers, in terms of the social impact, it is really significant to the host community also. And also back to Nepal, because Japan is one of the biggest sending remittance countries in Nepal.

Marty: 20:16

Influential, very influential. know also that one of the areas that you looked at I don't remember if it was a video or a written piece of yours that I saw focused on the children of these migrants, the experience that the Nepali children will have growing up in Japan, and then the relationship with their home country. Can you say a little bit about how it is for, we could call it the next generation?

Dipesh: 20:47

In the long-term research, I found the big change actually, like in the beginning mostly the male migrant they used to migrate in Japan to work in the restaurant. That was until 2009-10. In 2019 they started to bring their wife. They found their wife far more productive in Japan they can earn a lot of Japanese yen compared to stay in Nepali village. So that trend was rapidly increasing and almost all cooks they brought their wives. Still, most of them left their children behind in Nepal in the care of their relatives, mostly grandparents. My one documentary is more focused on those left behind children in Nepal. And then of course their relationship to the parents working in Japan. But around 2013, slowly they started to bring their children also. Is something considering about the social welfare. The Japanese government they also provide certain support to the children, like monthly maybe around 15,000 yen. Also in 2013, Nepali community they jointly opened one Everest International School in Japan. And so some parents they send children there and Nepali children also started to attend to the public Japanese school. From that the children number also rapidly growing. So now I think over 30,000 Nepalese children in Japan. If we see by age, like from zero to 30 years, over like 120,000 Nepalese in Japan now. So it is a huge number of children. Recently there is also change the trend. Previously, when they got pregnant, at the time of delivery they used to back to Nepal. But now it's like the family they decided to give birth their children in Japan. Before they don't know the hospital system here like Japan government they provide maybe like 400 to 500 Japanese yen for each birth. So they know those kinds of social welfare here also, and then the hospital facility clean. Before they thought giving childbirth is very expensive, but then after they knew the real informations now almost all mothers they give their childbirth in Japan. So that's also the reason the number of children is growing rapidly. They also bring in their left behind children from Nepal. Big number of children. I'm now focusing my research on those children they living in between two culture, in Japan and also in Nepal. Maybe they eat dal bhat in home, they speak Nepalese, and in school they need to speak Japanese, Japanese lunch, and Japanese friends. It's kind of (like) they are struggling, to adapt, to integrate. It may be good, but for the children it is also a lot of, I think, stress to adapt it in both cultures. How it will be in the future is one of the biggest questions. The cooks and then their families mostly they are village oriented. Their mothers have primary level of education. Fathers also is a similar level of education and they don't know much about the Japanese school system. In Japan, in education systems they frequently need to communicate to the schools, and because of their language proficiency they can't do it. So I'm severely concerned on how those children will grow.

Marty: 24:38

I know that in Canada we have this cliche that even when they're younger if they find it difficult, they will appreciate it when they're older because they will have mastered two languages and then they have the benefits of understanding two cultures, different points of view. So we have this idea that in the long term it's going to be positive. I don't know if that's also the way people in Nepal or Japan think about it. It's like in the end it will work out for the better.

Dipesh: 25:10

I completely agree with you. At the end, maybe when they finished universities, when sourcing job markets that time they will realize how they lucky to grow up to learn some things a different culture, two cultures, learn two language. But the children in now their stage they don't much have ideas about the future. They're thinking (about) now, and sometimes they're thinking maybe how I'm different from the Japanese. I feel some kind of sometimes worry about those children, but of course I'm sometimes also very positive those children they're very powerful, adapting so fast, sometimes very faster than their parents. Their learnings the language, they are so advanced, about Japanese culture, Japanese system, Japanese rules they are so fast learners compared to their parents. Sometimes I even observe some children, they are intermediators between the parents and the Japanese society. if letters come from the government office and sometimes from their companies, the parents they can't read those letters, but the children help read those letters and explain to the parents.

Marty: 26:25

You are a student of the Nepali experience in Japan, and you've chosen to do your work through the medium of visual documentation. And my thinking is, it's great people love watching things as we know with the growth of video and TikTok and YouTube and all of that. But at the same time I also wonder, it must be more difficult, like just physically, for you to go and do your research you have to think about all this equipment that you need to have with you. Whereas if I'm going to research an article, I just go with my little tape recorder and record someone and then write my article. It's physically much easier and I think the process is quicker also. So what is it about the visual medium that obviously attracted you and held your attention?

Dipesh: 27:16

Yes, I completely agree with you doing research by visual media is very challenging and it's very time consuming. You need a lot of energy, lot of efforts, lot of determination, compared to doing the text research. And mostly you need to capture the real events, real situations. It's very challenging. I'm trained as a visual anthropologist and I got trainings how to use camera as a research tool that's my specialization. It's challenging, but it's also rewarding. If we think about the research disseminations, some things we can do through this audiovisual means that's the text can't do. When talking about this migration research (it's) about the separations, about the struggles, about the challenge, about the people's emotions, and then downward mobilities, people's frustrations in the process. There is a lot of cases, all full of emotions that words can't maybe explain. So I found very important these audiovisual means to communicate their lives to the largest audience more impactfully. If you write books, maybe only a few readers read the books. Like my PhD dissertation, maybe not more than 100 people read it. But my films, millions of peoples all around the world (can watch them). But of course it is very challenging bringing your equipment. Nowadays there is available cheaper, affordables like the cameras and editing techniques. But still there is other challenge now how to approach people, how to communicate to people with the camera. They feel sometimes a little scared, want to maybe escape from the camera. So access becomes a very important part while thinking about these audiovisual means as methods.

Marty: 29:23

Yeah. It's one thing to access, to take video as from a journalistic approach, because you're capturing the surface. But it's another to do what you're doing to try to understand or get into the entire experience of the person. I agree with what you're saying and the word that comes to mind is intimacy. You can offer this intimacy in what you're doing and I remember looking at one of your pieces and it was these young men, these Nepalis, sharing a room somewhere in Tokyo I think. One of them was having a hard time and didn't want to get out of bed in the morning and was hiding in the bedding, and the camera was just there, recording him being sad and being in the bed and I still remember that, it's a very powerful scene, which would be very hard to portray through writing. Yeah. through explanation.

Dipesh: 30:16

Exactly. That intimacy or engagement is a part of visual anthropology. Maybe journalists they go to bring the story, but we go there and wait for the story. So that's a very difference. You spend maybe several days, maybe a month, maybe a year, and collect many hours (of) footages and you'll go through it, and then in editing process, you'll make a kind of narrative. In a journalistic way it's very different. They maybe have already script and they already have some idea what they want from the field. Our approach is something different from the journalistic approach. You spend times, but you can bring the deeper understanding of people's, real story of people, more from the actors' perspective, not from the director's perspective, not from my researcher perspective from the people perspectives. It's difficult, but I like it. It creates kind of possibilities to bring the life of peoples how they think about their world, how they act in their world, how they're reacting. So we can bring the real informations from the people's lives.

Marty: 31:34

I would love to talk more about this, but for now let's say goodbye. And, I thank you for coming on to tell us about your life and your work and the lives of Nepalis in Japan. The great thing about your work also is it's online and easily accessible. I I'll keep looking for it and stay up to date with what you're doing. So thank you again.

Dipesh: 31:53

Yes, thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity and please keep in touch.

Marty: 31:58

Thank you Dipesh.

Dipesh: 31:59

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

Marty: 32:03

Thanks again to Dipesh Kharel for sharing his knowledge about Nepali migrants in Japan. Let me know what you thought of our chat. You can message me by clicking on Send a Text in the show notes or on social media. We're (at)nepalnowpod. I'll talk to you next time.