Books by David Chapman
Japan in Australia: Culture, Context and Connection
Beginning with the first recorded contacts between Australians and Japanese in the nineteenth cen... more Beginning with the first recorded contacts between Australians and Japanese in the nineteenth century, the chapters focus on ‘people-to people’ narratives and the myriad multi-dimensional ways in which the two countries are interconnected: from sporting diplomacy to woodblock printing, from artistic metaphors to iconic pop imagery, from the tragedy of war to engagement in peace movements, from technology transfer to community arts. Tracing the trajectory of this 150-year relationship provides an example of how history can turn from fear, enmity and misunderstanding through war, foreign encroachment and the legacy of conflict, to close and intimate connections that result in cultural enrichment and diversification.
This book explores notions of Australia and ‘Australianness’ and Japan and ‘Japaneseness’, to better reflect on the cultural fusion that is contemporary Australia and build the narrative of the Japan–Australia relationship. It will be of interest to academics in the field of Asian, Japanese and Japanese-Pacific studies.
The Bonin Islanders, 1830 to the Present: Narrating Japanese Nationality
This book is a collection of interwoven historical narratives that present an intriguing and litt... more This book is a collection of interwoven historical narratives that present an intriguing and little known account of the Ogasawara (Bonin) archipelago and its inhabitants. The narratives begin in the seventeenth century and weave their way through various events connected to the ambitions, hopes and machinations of individuals, communities, and nations. At the center of these narratives are the Bonin Islanders, originally an eclectic mix of Pacific Islanders, Americans, British, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and African settlers that first landed on the islands in 1830. The islands were British sovereign territory from 1827 to 1876, when the Japanese asserted possession of the islands based on a seventeenth century expedition and a myth of a samurai discoverer. As part of gaining sovereign control, the Japanese government made all island inhabitants register as Japanese subjects of the national family register. The islanders were not literate in Japanese and had little experience of Japanese culture and limited knowledge of Japanese society, but by 1881 all were forced or coerced into becoming Japanese subjects. By the 1940s the islands were embroiled in the Pacific War. All inhabitants were evacuated to the Japanese mainland until 1946 when only the descendants of the original settlers were allowed to return. In the postwar period the islands fell under U.S. Navy administration until they were reverted to full Japanese sovereignty in 1968. Many descendants of these original settlers still live on the islands with family names such as Washington, Gonzales, Gilley, Savory, and Webb. This book explores the social and cultural history of these islands and its inhabitants and provides a critical approach to understanding the many complex narratives that make up the Bonin story.
Reviews:
The story of the Bonin Islands is an extraordinary and little-known part of Japan's frontier history. A place of multiple cultural encounters, migrations, displacements, and occupations, the Bonins offer a vantage point for a fresh look at the shaping of modern Japan. David Chapman provides a superb historical analysis of the islands' history, while also recounting their fascinating and sometimes tragic history with the skills of a consummate storyteller.
— Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Australian National University
David Chapman narrates a fascinating chapter of global history through the story of the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands, their people, and shifting regional power dynamics. He reveals a space and time of cosmopolitanism in the history of Japan and the Pacific.
— Vera Mackie, University of Wollongong, author of Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment and Sexuality
Japan’s Household Registration System (koseki seido) is an extremely powerful state instrument, a... more Japan’s Household Registration System (koseki seido) is an extremely powerful state instrument, and is socially entrenched with a long history of population governance, social control and the maintenance of social order. It provides identity whilst at the same time imposing identity upon everyone registered, and in turn, the state receives validity and legitimacy from the registration of its inhabitants. The study of the procedures and mechanisms for identifying and documenting people provides an important window into understanding statecraft, and by examining the koseki system, this book provides a keen insight into social and political change in Japan.
By looking through the lens of the koseki system, the book takes both an historical as well as a contemporary approach to understanding Japanese society. In doing so, it develops our understanding of contemporary Japan within the historical context of population management and social control; reveals the social effects and influence of the koseki system throughout its history; and presents new insights into citizenship, nationality and identity. Furthermore, this book develops our knowledge of state functions and indeed the nation state itself, through engaging critically with important issues relating to the koseki while at the same time providing a platform for further investigation. The contributors to this volume utilise a variety of disciplinary areas including history, gender studies, sociology, law and anthropology, and each chapter provides insights that bring us closer to a comprehensive grasp of the role, effects and historical background of what is a crucial and influential instrument of the Japanese state.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese history, Japanese culture and society, Japanese studies, Asian social policy and demography more generally.
Shedding light on contemporary Japanese society in an international context, Japanese-Korean rela... more Shedding light on contemporary Japanese society in an international context, Japanese-Korean relations and modern day notions of a multicultural Japan, this book addresses the broad notions and questions of citizenship, identity, ethnicity and belonging through investigation of Japan’s Korean population (zainichi).
Despite zainichi Korean existence being integral to, and interwoven with, recent Japanese social history, the debates and discussions of the Korean community in Japan have been largely ignored. Moreover, as a post colonial context, the zainichi Korean situation has drawn scant attention and little investigation outside of Japan.
In Zainichi Korean Ethnicity and Identity David Chapman seeks to redress this balance, engaging with recent discourse from within Japan’s Korean population. By taking a close look at how exclusion, marginalisation and privilege work, the book brings insight into the mechanisms of discrimination, and how discourse not only marginalizes individuals and groups, but also how it can create social change and enhance the sense of self.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian studies and of Japanese and Korean politics, culture and society, but also to those with a broader interest in migration studies and the study of identity and ethnicity.
Book Chapters by David Chapman
History and the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands: connecting Japan and the Pacific
Routledge handbook of race and ethnicity in Asia., 2022
At the end of the nineteenth century one of Japan’s earliest encounters of the outside world was ... more At the end of the nineteenth century one of Japan’s earliest encounters of the outside world was with a culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse community living on the eastern fringe of the country’s expanding borders. When Japanese authorities encountered Europeans, Americans, British and Pacific Islanders inhabiting space that Japan had earmarked as its own it not only tested the Meiji government’s interpretations of race and ethnicity, it also challenged the definition of Japanese legal identity that had to be determined within a mostly Western bureaucratic and legal context. This little-known history reveals much about early notions of race and ethnicity in Japan and the process through which the initial concepts of Japanese legal status were conceived and tested. This history also reveals the path by which Japan gained a sovereign presence in the Pacific region that it still maintains to this day.
Routledge handbook of race and ethnicity in Asia, 2022
The history of the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands provides an opportunity to examine Japan's diplomati... more The history of the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands provides an opportunity to examine Japan's diplomatic interaction with foreign powers early in its modernization from a novel perspective. Testing Japan's foray into the international arena as well as the diplomatic skills of both Britain and America in dealing with a developing Asian nation, these interactions involved negotiating sovereign claims, the legal status and position of inhabitants of the islands, and what legal processes constituted Japanese nationality and citizenship. The notions of nation, nationality and sovereign jurisdiction were duly debated during the dialogues between Japan and, in particular Britain, over the Bonin Islands. In many ways the trajectory of Japan's earliest emergence as a modern and internationally connected nation was also tested. These events are of significance in understanding this important period in Japanese relations with the west and of how Japan saw itself as a nation in an increasingly international and connected setting. In this paper, I introduce key events occurring on the islands during pre-Meiji, Meiji and post-Meiji periods to provide insight into a little-known corner of Japanese history.
Japan in Australia: Culture, Context and Connection, 2020
The introduction outlines the goal of examining the impact and influence of Japan on Australia’s ... more The introduction outlines the goal of examining the impact and influence of Japan on Australia’s social, historical and cultural landscape. It contextualises how the following chapters engage with the relationship between Australia and Japan, presenting a diverse range of disciplinary approaches to demonstrate ways in which Japan has been imagined, represented and experienced in the Australian context through history, and thereby contributing to the ongoing discourse of research in the area of Japan in Australia.
The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture, 2020
Legal sex, the classification of a person as either male or female, in Japan is mediated through ... more Legal sex, the classification of a person as either male or female, in Japan is mediated through familial relationships documented on the family register (koseki). This institutionalizes marriage and family and places familial identity, gender identity, and gender role at the centre of a person’s legal identity, the effect of which is felt in the broader context of Japanese society and everyday lives in complex and diverse ways. This, combined with a patriarchal, moralistic, and heteronormative approach to defining the legal family, means notions of gender/sex are moulded within the family registration system (koseki seido). There is much to gain in researching the koseki for scholars of gender in Japan and gender studies in general. This chapter provides an introduction to the field with commentary of the field and its future.
Japan's Demographic Revival Rethinking Migration, Identity and Sociocultural Norms, 2016
The way governments identify their citizens determines the level of engagement and participation ... more The way governments identify their citizens determines the level of engagement and participation possible for them as members of society. Registration and identification may either create structural impediments or remove barriers. In Japan these processes are extensive and complex and, for the most part, are connected to the Family Registration System ( koseki seido). The modern day Family Registration Law ( kosekihō), promulgated in 1872, predates the Nationality Law ( kokusekihō) introduced in 1899, and ultimately defines status as Japanese. Recent changes to the Alien Registration Law and Basic Resident Registration Law provide an opportunity to examine the koseki system in the context of social change in Japan. In 2012, for the first time, foreign nationals were recorded on the resident registry ( jūminhyō). The change is aimed at eliminating the confusion and impediments created by the previous system that administratively separated members of the same family according to their nationality. In this chapter, I underscore the importance of this change in eliminating barriers and improving the situation for “ multinational” families (families with a Japanese national and at least one non-national). However, by placing these modifications in context, I also argue that, despite their benefits, a register that defines legal status as a Japanese national through a family-based registration system still creates unnecessary barriers and fails to adequately address social change, impeding the lives of many in Japan.
The Grand State Council (dajōkan) clearly states the intention of the state in introducing the Fa... more The Grand State Council (dajōkan) clearly states the intention of the state in introducing the Family Registration System (koseki) in the preamble to the 1871 Koseki Law (kosekihō). The keeping of accurate records of families and individuals, firstly allowed the state to protect, civilize and bring order to the disorder of the previous Tokugawa Era. The creation of order was primary to Japan’s trajectory in becoming a nation and modern state.
The jinshin koseki provided an efficient way of demarcating sovereign boundaries and demographically defining the population. The modernizing of Japan during the Meiji Period was seen by elites as the shedding of feudal backwardness and a distancing from the isolationist, irrational and chaotic past. Initially, this order-making process included the identification and documentation through the koseki of all inhabitants of what would later become referred to as naichi (the inner territories). Later, the enterprise of building order was expanded to an even grander scale to cover increasing and diversifying numbers of people in an ever-expanding territory. Imperial Japan’s colonial expansion into neighbouring territories brought different challenges to population governance. The koseki was used an instrument of assimilation with the power to exclude and expel. It provided layered demarcation by creating external (collectively known as gaichi koseki) territory registers that reflected, but existed apart from, the internal (naichi koseki) register. Each colonial territory had its own idiosyncratic registration system or systems. By categorizing, classifying and rationalizing, the koseki was meant to assure an orderly life and a congruent logic that would protect the state and the empire from chaos and uncertainty. Instead it was endless chaos in which the colonial governments had to make countless amendments to legislation related to registers to address the complexity and disorder that accompanied such bureaucracy.
During the formative years of the Japanese nation and empire, the use of the koseki as the bureaucratic mechanism of organization not only affected the lives of those in Japan but also many throughout Northeast Asia, producing millions of ‘undecidables’ and ‘strangers’. Moreover, the legacy of this early history and the chaos of the order-making process have continued throughout the post-war period and into the contemporary context."""
Critical Readings on Ethnic Minorities and Multiculturalism in Japan,, 2013
Critical Readings on Ethnic Minorities and Multiculturalism in Japan, 2013
The Ogasawara Islands of Japan are a site of multiple layers of migration and displacement. The i... more The Ogasawara Islands of Japan are a site of multiple layers of migration and displacement. The islands were first settled by Europeans and Pacific Islanders in 1830 and then colonized by Japan in 1875. In 1944, at the height of WWII, the islands’ inhabitants were forced to evacuate to mainland Japan. The US navy then occupied the islands until their return to Japanese sovereignty. This chapter discusses the way the Ogasawara Islanders have been identified. It situates the Ogasawara Islands in their historical context of migration but focuses on the period from the evacuation to the reversion to Japanese sovereignty as an extraordinary period of mobilization. The chapter shows that the displacement of the entire civilian population led to experiences that varied greatly among the diverse islanders. Explaining the numerous and multifaceted dimensions and their intersections of the Ogasawara Islander experiences shows that, like other Islanders, Ogasawara identity is characterized by the tension between on the one hand, isolation and insularity and on the other, mobility and migration. Interviews of Islanders indicate that the processes of identification within the changing cultural, political, and social contexts of the islands have played a significant role in affecting notions of self.
This research is based on analyses of biographical and auto-biographical fieldwork interviews wit... more This research is based on analyses of biographical and auto-biographical fieldwork interviews with the descendants of first settlers on Chichijima and archival investigation in Japan and the US. The data discusses the challenges that this history presents to commonly accepted views of citizenship, identity and language in Japan. It also reveals how individuals within this community have responded to the varying experiences of uprootings and regroundings under US and Japanese administration.
Papers by David Chapman
Japanese Studies, 2025
This article examines the visual and political dimensions of seawall construction in Kesennuma, J... more This article examines the visual and political dimensions of seawall construction in Kesennuma, Japan, in the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Through a visual lens the study explores how seawalls, in their various forms, act as visual and political symbols that reflect and shape both governmental authority and community values. By analysing fieldwork data, including landscapes, visual media, and architectural structures, the research reveals how 'politics of visuality' have played a significant role in the reconstruction process. The study argues that seawalls are not merely functional structures, but artifacts imbued with cultural and political meaning, mediating the tension between governmental priorities of safety and community concerns for preserving cultural identity. The case of Kesennuma provides a unique perspective on how visual elements in infrastructure influence public perceptions and local decision-making, especially in a context where the connection to the ocean is central to community identity. Ultimately, the research calls for a more nuanced approach to Japan's disaster management of tsunami, one that goes beyond physical protection to also consider the cultural and visual landscapes. This approach is essential for addressing the complex interplay of safety, identity, and environmental concerns in coastal recovery efforts.
Gender and Family Values Among Japanese Migrants in Australia: Marital Surnaming
Japanese Studies, 2024
Separate marital surnaming (fūfubessei) has been a controversial issue in Japan for many years. A... more Separate marital surnaming (fūfubessei) has been a controversial issue in Japan for many years. Although the Civil Code and the Koseki Law allow the choice of surname for a married couple to be either the husband’s or the wife’s surname, this same legislation prevents a married couple from holding separate surnames. Despite calls for change to allow freedom of choice for couples strengthening in recent years, no progress in this direction has been forthcoming. This study focusses on migrant Japanese married couples in Australia to investigate if their attitudes and behaviour relating to marital surnaming are impacted by living in country where more liberal legislation allows for diverse arrangements for couples. The results indicate that those who have acculturated to life in Australia tend to be more favourably attuned to diverse arrangements than Japanese in Japan. However, those migrant couples less acculturated to Australian life tend to hold on to traditional cultural beliefs. The research also highlights the significant role of filial piety in the choices and attitudes of migrant Japanese couples in Australia
Visualising Korea: Critical Moments in History, Society and Politics
Asian Studies Review, 2021
The purpose of this special issue is to examine how visual representations have shaped changing n... more The purpose of this special issue is to examine how visual representations have shaped changing notions of Korean society, culture and nationhood. While images surround us, and are increasingly recognised as crucial, we know surprisingly little about the role visuality plays in the context of Korean politics and society. Only a few selected studies engage the issues at stake. To address these issues, the authors in this collection explore how the Korean peninsula has been imagined, represented and displayed through images during critical historical and contemporary moments over the past century. The key moments that the contributors address include Japanese colonialism and its legacy, national division and authoritarian rules in North and South Korea, interactions with the international community, and the transition to democracy in the South. The visual realms the contributors draw upon include photographs, film, monuments, and digital reproductions of them. The key questions each contributor asks are: how have visual factors influenced key events? What can we learn from visual sources that we cannot learn from textual ones?
Asian Studies Review, 2021
In 2015, the Japanese imperial army’s system of military sexual servitude/military prostitution o... more In 2015, the Japanese imperial army’s system of military sexual servitude/military prostitution once again became central to relations between South Korea and Japan. After the signing of a 2015 agreement meant to resolve disputes between the two countries, the Statue of Peace, an effigy of a young Korean woman, was reproduced in both physical form and through digital media, expanding its visual presence in both the material and virtual worlds. This study examines events between 2015 and 2018 through the lens of visual politics and argues that, to fully understand the political impact of the Statue of Peace, we need to assess it not only as a physical effigy, but also as a form of digital reproduction. In doing so, it highlights that the mechanical reproduction of the Statue of Peace freed it from the limitations of being a physical representation, and allowed it to interact in more diverse contexts as a tool of resistance against the Japanese government’s proposal and the Korean government’s complicity with the 2015 agreement. This study adds to the analytical toolbox of visualising Korea with the aim of providing greater insight on an important issue facing South Korea and its relationship with Japan.
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Books by David Chapman
This book explores notions of Australia and ‘Australianness’ and Japan and ‘Japaneseness’, to better reflect on the cultural fusion that is contemporary Australia and build the narrative of the Japan–Australia relationship. It will be of interest to academics in the field of Asian, Japanese and Japanese-Pacific studies.
Reviews:
The story of the Bonin Islands is an extraordinary and little-known part of Japan's frontier history. A place of multiple cultural encounters, migrations, displacements, and occupations, the Bonins offer a vantage point for a fresh look at the shaping of modern Japan. David Chapman provides a superb historical analysis of the islands' history, while also recounting their fascinating and sometimes tragic history with the skills of a consummate storyteller.
— Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Australian National University
David Chapman narrates a fascinating chapter of global history through the story of the Bonin (Ogasawara) Islands, their people, and shifting regional power dynamics. He reveals a space and time of cosmopolitanism in the history of Japan and the Pacific.
— Vera Mackie, University of Wollongong, author of Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment and Sexuality
By looking through the lens of the koseki system, the book takes both an historical as well as a contemporary approach to understanding Japanese society. In doing so, it develops our understanding of contemporary Japan within the historical context of population management and social control; reveals the social effects and influence of the koseki system throughout its history; and presents new insights into citizenship, nationality and identity. Furthermore, this book develops our knowledge of state functions and indeed the nation state itself, through engaging critically with important issues relating to the koseki while at the same time providing a platform for further investigation. The contributors to this volume utilise a variety of disciplinary areas including history, gender studies, sociology, law and anthropology, and each chapter provides insights that bring us closer to a comprehensive grasp of the role, effects and historical background of what is a crucial and influential instrument of the Japanese state.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese history, Japanese culture and society, Japanese studies, Asian social policy and demography more generally.
Despite zainichi Korean existence being integral to, and interwoven with, recent Japanese social history, the debates and discussions of the Korean community in Japan have been largely ignored. Moreover, as a post colonial context, the zainichi Korean situation has drawn scant attention and little investigation outside of Japan.
In Zainichi Korean Ethnicity and Identity David Chapman seeks to redress this balance, engaging with recent discourse from within Japan’s Korean population. By taking a close look at how exclusion, marginalisation and privilege work, the book brings insight into the mechanisms of discrimination, and how discourse not only marginalizes individuals and groups, but also how it can create social change and enhance the sense of self.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian studies and of Japanese and Korean politics, culture and society, but also to those with a broader interest in migration studies and the study of identity and ethnicity.
Book Chapters by David Chapman
The jinshin koseki provided an efficient way of demarcating sovereign boundaries and demographically defining the population. The modernizing of Japan during the Meiji Period was seen by elites as the shedding of feudal backwardness and a distancing from the isolationist, irrational and chaotic past. Initially, this order-making process included the identification and documentation through the koseki of all inhabitants of what would later become referred to as naichi (the inner territories). Later, the enterprise of building order was expanded to an even grander scale to cover increasing and diversifying numbers of people in an ever-expanding territory. Imperial Japan’s colonial expansion into neighbouring territories brought different challenges to population governance. The koseki was used an instrument of assimilation with the power to exclude and expel. It provided layered demarcation by creating external (collectively known as gaichi koseki) territory registers that reflected, but existed apart from, the internal (naichi koseki) register. Each colonial territory had its own idiosyncratic registration system or systems. By categorizing, classifying and rationalizing, the koseki was meant to assure an orderly life and a congruent logic that would protect the state and the empire from chaos and uncertainty. Instead it was endless chaos in which the colonial governments had to make countless amendments to legislation related to registers to address the complexity and disorder that accompanied such bureaucracy.
During the formative years of the Japanese nation and empire, the use of the koseki as the bureaucratic mechanism of organization not only affected the lives of those in Japan but also many throughout Northeast Asia, producing millions of ‘undecidables’ and ‘strangers’. Moreover, the legacy of this early history and the chaos of the order-making process have continued throughout the post-war period and into the contemporary context."""
Papers by David Chapman