Gendered Mobilities and Transnational Care: The Case of Japanese Retirees in Southeast Asia

Abstract
The migration of increasing numbers of Japanese retirees to Southeast Asia is not only a response to the rapid progress of population ageing, but is also part of a larger gendered political economy reconfiguration in the region. Compared to retirement migrations among Western countries and that from North America to Central and South America, retirement mobility from Japan to Southeast Asian countries has a special characteristic in that it is institutionally facilitated. This paper aims to shed light on the connections and gaps between institutional setups and individual strategies in the case of the Japanese elderly’s mobility, with a special focus on gender.

About the Speaker
Mika TOYOTA is a Professor at the College of Tourism, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan. Before joining Rikkyo, she worked at the University of Hull, UK (2000-2002) and the National University of Singapore (2002-2012). Her recent and forthcoming publications include ‘Confronting economic precariousness through international retirement migration: Japan’s old-age “economic refugees” and Germany’s exported grannies” in Jillian M. RicklyBoyd, Kevin Hannam and Mary Mostafanezhad (eds.) Tourism and Leisure Mobilities: Politics, Work and Play (2016 with Meghann Ormond); ‘TransAsia Mobility from Above and from Below: The Case of Elderly Migration from Japan to Southeast Asia’ in Asian Review (2017); and ‘Retirees transnational mobility as processes of identity negotiation: The case of Japanese in Southeast Asia’ Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power (2017 with THANG Leng Leng).