Product details
- ISBN 9789813253292
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2026
- Publisher: NUS Press
- Publication City/Country: SG
- Product Form: Hardback
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How do faith, family, and migration intersect in the intimate lives of transnational couples? This ethnography examines Japanese-Filipino marriages in contemporary Japan to reveal how gendered Catholic practices, cultural negotiation, and the politics of belonging shape everyday life. Set in Northern Kyushu, this ethnography explores the often tense dynamics of these relationships—how love, faith, and social expectations are navigated across multiple domains. Through long-term fieldwork, it shows how Filipino migrants and their Japanese partners create "contact zones" where faith becomes both a resource for connection and a site of struggle. Religion, far from being a private matter, becomes a powerful tool for migrants to sustain family ties, negotiate identities, and transform the intimate spaces they live in. Centering religious practices within migration studies, this book offers fresh insights into the evolving landscape of transnational families in Japan.
Mario Lopez is an anthropologist and migration specialist based at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University
