Yuiko Fujita, Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies,
Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies,
The University of Tokyo
東京大学大学院情報学環 藤田結子研究室
113-0033 東京都文京区本郷7－3－1
Researchmap (Publications & Presentations)
Email: yuikofujita4140@gmail.com
I was born in Tokyo and have lived in Maryland, Philadelphia, New York, London, and Mishima. As a college student, I was fascinated by cities across Asia and traveled extensively in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and other places, working part-time jobs to fund my visits. During my graduate studies, I was introduced to field research through ethnography, which opened my eyes to the joy of academic inquiry.
My research uses ethnographic approaches to explore how digital media technologies are reshaping—and are reshaped by—social practices, identities, and gender relations in Japan and transnational spaces. I am particularly interested in how global technological trends intersect, providing new insights into communication, youth and popular culture, gender inequalities, and migration.
■Research Project
1. Cultural Migration: Media and Mobility Project
How do interests in and aspirations toward media and culture generate human mobility, and how do people who move subsequently carry and transform culture? Since the 2000s, I have conducted qualitative research, primarily using ethnographic methods, on the relationships among media, mobility, identity, and cultural production in cities including New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo.
2000s: Cultural Migrants
During the 2000s, I conducted multi-sited ethnographic research on young Japanese people who moved to New York and London. I coined the term “cultural migrants” to describe people whose mobility was motivated primarily by cultural interests and aspirations. My research examined the relationships among the media-mediated construction of the “imagined West,” migration, and national and transnational identities.
Selected Publications
Fujita, Yuiko. “Young Japanese ‘Cultural Migrants’ and the Construction of Their Imagined West.” Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 2004.
Fujita, Yuiko. Cultural Migrants from Japan: Youth, Media, and Migration in New York and London. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.
2010s: Cultural Production in Global Cities
During the 2010s, I extended my research to cultural producers, including artists, fashion designers, and chefs working in global cities such as New York, London, and Paris. I examined how Japanese cultural producers who moved to cultural centers abroad engaged in creative practices and negotiated and constructed Japaneseness and cultural identities within local cultural and institutional contexts.
Selected Publications
Fujita, Yuiko. “Fabricating Japaneseness? The Identity Politics of Young Designers and Artists in Global Cities.” Japanese Journal of Sociology, 2011.
Fujita, Yuiko. “Still a Man’s World: Finding Gender Issues in Tokyo Fashion Week.” In The Routledge Companion to Anthropology and Business, 2020.
2020s and Beyond: Revisiting Cultural Migrants and Tracing the Circulation — Revisit, Identity and Return
I have begun revisiting the field sites and participants from my research in the 2000s. More than twenty years later, I am examining how the experience of cultural migration has continued to shape migrants’ identities, senses of belonging, and media use. I am also conducting ethnographic and revisit research on the global circulation of people and material objects between New York and Tokyo, using street cultures as key empirical cases.
Selected Publication
Fujita, Yuiko. “Everyday Nationhood and Digital Media: Tracing Identity among Japanese Cultural Migrants.” International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2026.
2. Care and Technology Project
Against the backdrop of rapid developments in AI, I examine how the meanings and value of care work in the home are changing. My current research focuses on the effects of digital platforms and smart-home technologies, with particular attention to the intersections of race, gender, and social class in Japan.
My earlier research examined the gendered and classed organization of childcare and domestic labor in Japan, including the phenomenon known as one-operation childcare (one-ope ikuji), a term that subsequently became widely used in public discussions of parenting in Japan.
Selected Books
Fujita, Yuiko, and Misako Nukaga. “Rationalizing Foodwork at Home.” In Key Texts for Japanese Sociology. SAGE, 2025.
Nukaga, Misako and Yuiko Fujita. Inequality and the Work–Family Dilemma in Japan: Stratified Mothering. Routledge, 2026
東京生まれ。メリーランド、フィラデルフィア、ニューヨーク、ロンドン、三島に住んでいたことがあります。学生のときはバンコクを中心にアジアの街に魅了されアルバイトをして繰り返し訪れました。留学中にフィールド・リサーチに出会って研究の楽しさを知りました。（詳細はこちら情報学環HP【教員インタビュー】）
私の研究は、エスノグラフィーと質的調査の手法を用いて、デジタルメディア技術が社会実践、アイデンティティ、ジェンダー関係をどのように再編成しているかを探ります。とくに、グローバルなテクノロジーの潮流が日本の社会的文脈と交差することで、移民、ジェンダー、若者文化やポピュラーカルチャーといった現象にどのような新たな視点をもたらすかに関心を持っています。
現在は、以下のテーマについて、エスノグラフィーなど質的調査法を用いて研究しています。成果は、主に国際学会、国際ジャーナルでの発表をめざし、研究室のメンバーや共同研究者と活動しています。
- グローバルな移動とメディア・文化
ニューヨーク、ロンドン、パリ、東京などの都市は、メディアの影響の下、多数の専門職や職人を引きつけています。グローバル都市における移民・メディアと創造産業、越境するフローの循環について調査を行っています。 - ケア労働とテクノロジー
AI技術の発展の下、女性たちが家庭で行ってきた育児などのケア労働の意味や価値にどのように変化が起きているのか。プラットフォームやスマートホームの影響に関して、人種とジェンダー、階層の交差性に着目し日本のケースについて考察を進めています。 - エスノグラフィー方法論
対面とデジタルのエスノグラフィーの方法と授業でのトレーニング法について研究しています。
■ Education
University of London, Goldsmiths, UK, Ph.D. (Communications, 2006, Supervisor: Prof. David Morley)
Columbia University, NY, USA, M.A. (Sociology)
■PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Editorial Boards
- The Sociological Review, UK (2021-present)
- The Japan Sociological Review, Editor (2021-2023)
- International Journal of Japanese Sociology, The Japan Sociological Society, Editor (2006-2015)
Journal Referee
International: International Journal of Cultural Studies, Convergence, The Sociological Review, Cultural Sociology, American Sociological Review, Media Asia, Japan Forum, Annals of Leisure Research etc.
Japan: Japan Sociological Review, International Journal of Japanese Sociology , Journal of Mass Communication Studies, Journal of Cultural Anthropology, The Annual Review of Cultural Studies, Migration Policy Review, Journal of Labour Sociology and others
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When I was a child, I lived in Maryland, near Washington, D.C., in the U.S. I made friends from diverse backgrounds, which became the basis of my interests in research and hobbies, such as travel and hip-hop.
I wrote an essay about my experience: “What I learned in Michael’s Country,” which was published in a Japanese magazine. You can read the draft here.
In my teens, I was deeply passionate about R&B and rap music and playing in bands, performing on percussion and drums.
子供の頃、アメリカのワシントンD.C.近郊、メリーランド州に住んでいました。そこで多様なバックグラウンドを持つ友人たちと出会ったことが、現在の研究への関心や、旅行、HIPHOPといった趣味の原点になりました。
当時の経験を綴ったエッセイ「マイケルの国で勉強したこと」は、日本の雑誌に掲載されました。こちらからその草稿をお読みいただけます。その後、10代の頃はR&Bやラップ音楽に熱中し、バンドでパーカッションやドラムを演奏していました。