The Diversity Digital Media Project: Engaging Migrant Youth in Japan through Creative Practice

As a result of an increase of migrants in Fukui, a rural city of Japan since the 1990s, migrant youth have increased through the settlement of permanent residents and through international marriage. However, when migrant youth attempt to use digital media to potentially foster their relationships with the local community, the ‘Japanese only' environment can discourage them to make use of it for creating and extending their social networks in Japan. In 2011, a two day farm-stay camp in Fukui with four migrant youth was organized as a research project. Various locals, such as media artists and migrant support professionals supported migrant youths and helped them create a digital media production. I conducted both participant observation and interviews with participants to understand the ways in which these migrants and local Japanese interact with each other through the use of digital media. This paper explores two key questions. First, I examine how digital media can be employed for community engagement between migrant youth and the local community and how it can help them achieve cultural citizenship. Second, this paper examines how local Japanese participants perceive their attitude-change process in real encounters with migrants in Fukui through the use of digital media.