Afro-Japanese Tourism Website — Shion
Project Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T0cVPZTgJG8wWY659VUv4KwLxfK8DWUc/view?usp=sharing
What is the image of Afro-Japanese future? While there are not many discussions about Afro-Japanese future, connections between two exists in an interesting sphere. My view of this is from the perspective of tourism. The exchange of people between Africa and Japan will increase its interaction and develop an understanding towards each other. The project is based on these ideas and aimed to explain the representation of Afro-Japanese future through tourism.
My vision of Afro-Japanese future contains the aspect of its interaction, cultural exchange and collaboration without any biased views. There are different types of Afro-Japanese interactions in both old and modern age. In the Sengoku period, the relationship between Japan and black was not biased. For example, African samurai, Yasuke was selected to be a samurai by Oda Nobunaga and fought for him. Also, Japanese people did not have any stereotypes towards black people but curiosity. However, due to the introduction of ‘western gaze’ in Japanese view towards black, the stereotype of them such as violent, aggressive and strong appeared. The western nations influenced Japanese view. Therefore, my vision for Afro-Japanese future is the relationship without the western gaze, meaning no stereotyped and biased view. As it is vital to understand and see what they really are, more interaction, cultural exchange and collaboration are required for that future. The interaction of people between black and Japanese includes not only interactions in person but also interactions on internet or through social media. Cultural exchange is to be exposed to other’s culture and to experience it. Collaboration refers to the result of the mixture of cultures, interactions and others and generates the production of one culture and another one. Those aspects can be expressed by tourism.
My creative project focuses on tourism to illustrate my vision of Afro-Japanese future that has more interaction, cultural exchange and collaboration. Tourism involves the transfer of people and the appeal of uniqueness beyond the border. As people often travel to other nations, tourism can be a chance to increase the interaction of people and culture in Japan. Since the western gaze effects on some information on the internet in a negative way, a visit to the country will lead to the real understanding of its culture and nature by experiencing and interacting actually, which is my vision of Afro-Japanese encounters. Moreover, when choosing a place to visit, people are attracted to uniqueness. People often seek extraordinary experiences as the purpose of travelling has been to escape from their normal lives, which is called ‘the tourist gaze’ and organized socially (Urry & Larsen, 2011). In my project, to provide places to experience out of normal lives, selected places are culturally and socially different between black and Japan. When differences encounter and collaborate, it can produce innovative differences. In the future, more new culture will be created by interacting with different cultures. In addition, the choice of a place strongly reflects the status to travelers. Choosing different places from others was the way to distinguish the status between elites and working classes in society, which still remains in a different way. Therefore, in this creative project, I selected some places that people do not usually pick such as the Dejima in Nagasaki prefecture. The idea of tourist gaze can decrease the western gaze in the future and lead to the increase of Afro-Japanese encounters in a pure way as tourism can be an opportunity to understand the true value of both Japan and Africa. In addition, if visiting the places related to blackness becomes the status to Japanese people, the image of African culture and people can be replaced by the reality and diminish the biased image.
This creative project is represented through the website ‘Afro-Japanese Future in Tourism’. There are mainly three features on the website: the home page, African places and Japanese places. Although I chose Africa as the representation of black, Africa is not the only place where African people exists. Thus, in the home page, there is the explanation of where African people including African diaspora and descents live in. Afro-Japanese encounter in the future will happen in all over the world due to the increase of transferring people across the country. In the section of African places, the Cape town is recommended to visit. 91% of Japanese population live in relatively urban areas (The First Section: Classifying Metropolis, Provincial Cities and Underpopulated Areas, 2015). It means that only 9% of Japanese people live in the rural area. Therefore, Japanese people tend to visit places with nature as there is the word ‘green tourism’ explaining the tendency to visit the countryside. Cape Town also has an interesting connection with Japan. People from Cape Town came to the Dejima in Nagasaki and also Japanese people first started the business there in the South Africa. These hidden interesting connections should be promoted more and can provide a chance to engage in the country more. For the Japanese section, I chose places that represent Japanese history with African one or its culture with African culture. In the meantime, those places will attract African people by exposing to different cultures and experiencing out of the ordinary.
My creative project represents Afro-Japanese future by showing connections between them using tourism, which can lead to a better understanding towards each other. In the future, more interactions, cultural exchange and collaboration will happen without the western gaze. It will lead to a better understanding of what they really are.
References
Dejima General Information Center. (2020). National Historical Site Dejima. Dejima. https://nagasakidejima.jp/
Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism.
The First section: Classifying metropolis, provincial cities and underpopulated areas. (2015). Welfare and Medical Service Network System. https://www.wam.go.jp/content/wamnet/pcpub/top/fukushiiryokeiei/houjin/houjin001.html
Turek, E. (2020). Postcards from Japan: PhD in Tokyo and uncovering Afro-Japanese interactions with Warren Stanislaus. Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). https://www.japan.travel/en/uk/inspiration/postcards-from-japan-with-warren-stanislaus/
Urry, J., & Larsen, J. (2011). The Tourist Gaze 3.0.
World History for Everyone. (2020, November 9). Diversity World History Vol.3 African in the Dejima. Note. https://note.com/sekaishi/n/n5c88197578c2
