In the previous post, I mentioned about my presentation at HINZ 2013. The theme of the paper I submitted for the conference was the Twitter's impact on unprecedented scale of the exodus among ordinary people in Japan namely domestic housewives after the Fukushima Nuclear Accident.
Before the accident, Japanese expatriates were rare on Twitter and could easily acquire thousands of followers by tweeting bits and pieces of the daily life in a foreign culture. The shocking videos of the explosions at the nuclear power station changed everything. I have witnessed a number of people seeking information about how to get out the country to a foreign land, maintain daily living in an unfamiliar country and find a way to settle there permanently. I wrote my paper to record their odysseys collectively.
I know through Twitter, considerable people are keep leaving Japan for good. More are planning to do so in near future. However, for a population of more than 120 million, is still only a fraction and even fewer than the recently decreased Kiwi exodus across Tasman. Still this is a big change for a country where vast majority of people are born and die there. I do not think it would have been possible without the prevalence of social network services especially Twitter.
As I listen to those people, they are not acting out of fears. For those who are emigrating, they are just seeking alternatives. Japan has a lot to offer but the options often come as a predetermined set. It may be the result of too much optimisation to an overly cohesive population. I hope that the current diaspora of Japanese bring more diversity to Japanese as an ethnic group.
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