Faculty

UCHIO Taichi

Associate Professor

Department of Intercultural Studies
Graduate School of Cultural Policy and Management

E-mail　t-uchio@suac.ac.jp
Website　https://uchiotaichi.com/
Research Keywords：
Dignity, Human Security, Public Engagement, Tohoku (Japan), Easter Island (Chile)

Degrees	Ph.D. (Human Security Studies), The University of Tokyo (2017) M.A. (Human Security Studies), The University of Tokyo (2010) B.A. (Intercultural Studies), Fukuoka University of Education (2008)
Selected Professional Experiences	Visiting Collaborative Researcher, Research Center for PanPacific Civilizations, Ritsumeikan University (2020/10-the present) Associate Professor, Reitaku University (2020/4-2023/3) Assistant Professor, Reitaku University (2018/4-2020/3) Lecturer, Reitaku University (2015/4-2018/3)
Research Fields	Cultural Anthropology, Multiculturalism, Natural Disaster
Major Publications	Fukko to Songen: Shinsai Go Wo Ikiru Minami Sanriku Chou No Kiseki [Dignity after 3.11: An Ethnography of Post - Tsunami Reconstruction in Japan]. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. 2018. (in Japanese) "Japanese Filipino Children Between the Dichotomy of ’Japanese’ and ’Non-Japanese’: Challenging a Policy Distortion in Tabunka Kyosei," in John Ertl, John Mock, et al. eds. Reframing Diversity in the Anthropology of Japan, Kanazawa: Kanazawa University Center for Cultural Resource Studies, pp.147-165. 2015. "A Comparative Study of Moai Tourism between Minami Sanriku Town and Easter Island." Reitaku University Journal, 102, pp.54-61. 2019. "NGO Activity as a Method for Public Anthropology: From a Case Study of Disaster-relief Activities in Miyagi Prefecture." Reitaku University Journal, 99, pp.1-9. 2017. "Micro-politics of Identity in a Multicultural Japan: The Use of Western Colonial Heritages among Japanese Filipino Children (JFC)." Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan, 40(1), pp.85-100. 2015.
Academic Organizations	Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology Japan Association for Human Security Studies

Message

I specialize in cultural anthropology and human security studies. My main area of research interest is dignity: What does it mean? When does it appear? And whose dignity should be recognized and respected by whom? I approache these questions using such qualitative methods as fieldwork and ethnography.

I have conducted fieldwork in several disaster-hit areas from Japan’s 2011 catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. My doctoral dissertation from the University of Tokyo is an ethnography aimed to explore the dignity of disaster-hit people through the recovery process of Minami Sanriku Town, Miyagi, Japan, from 2011 to 2016. The dissertation was published in 2018 as a single-authored book, Fukko to Songen Shinsai Go Wo Ikiru Minami Sanriku Chou No Kiseki (Dignity after 3.11: An Ethnography of Post-Tsunami Reconstruction in Japan.), which is only available in Japanese.

Nowadays, I have broadened my fieldwork experience, focusing on the transnational aspect of a natural disaster. For example, I have visited the areas affected by the teletsunami that surged from Japan to Chile in 2011 several times and conducted interview research with the local people. This multi-sited ethnographic approach unveils that “3.11” is not a disaster that affected more than just the Japanese.

One of my recent publications is “A Comparative Study of Moai Tourism between Minami Sanriku Town and Easter Island” (2019), which is based on the fact that the Chilean government gifted a newly carved moai to Minami Sanriku Town as a symbol of its recovery.

In Hamamatsu City, where SUAC is located, I will start research on DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) and multicultural society in preparation for The Nankai Trough earthquake.

Education