Vietnamese Diaspora in Japan
From mylien@hawaii.edu Mon Nov 29 18:38:03 2004
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:33:44 -1000
From: My Lien Thi Nguyen <mylien@hawaii.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Vietnamese Diaspora in Japan
Xin Chao VSG community,
I am a Ph.D. student in the Ethnobotany program at the University of
Hawaii. My thesis explores culinary practices, the use and
substitution of food plants by Vietnamese in Hawaii (with comparative
data from southern Vietnam).
Currently, I am formulating a proposal for a post-doctoral fellowship
to conduct an ethnobotanical project studying the Vietnamese diaspora
in Japan in regards to culinary practices and food plants, with a
specific interest in the use of taro. If granted the fellowship, I
will work at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, working with
Dr. Peter Matthews, a specialist on the history of taro.
I have found historical information discussing the Japan-era in
Vietnam, and more current economic issues (e.g. Vietnam-Japan
tourism). Although, I know that issues regarding immigrants in Japan
are of concern to the country, I have found little information
concerning current Vietnamese communities in Japan (except the Mekong
Center site).
Could anyone suggest other sources of information - especially for
population of Vietnamese in Japan - are there concentrated communities?
Thank you,
Xin cam on,
My Lien
----------------------------------------------------------------
My Lien T. Nguyen
Department of Botany
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel# 808-944-6167
Fax# 808-956-3923
http://www.mylientnguyen.info
From khoa.le2@verizon.net Mon Nov 29 19:40:46 2004
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 22:39:11 -0500
From: Khoa Le <khoa.le2@verizon.net>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Vietnamese Diaspora in Japan
Ms. My Lien,
Contact Mr. Do Thong Minh, publisher/editor, Nha Xuat Ban Tan Van/ Mekong
Center, at
140-0014 Tokyo-To, Shinagawa-Ku, Oi 1-11-4 Ogawaya Biru 2F, Japan
Tel. 81-3-5742-2168
email: mekongcenter@asahi-net.or.jp
website: http://www.mmjp.or.jp/mekongcenter
Good luck,
Le Xuan Khoa
From sinh.vinh@ualberta.ca Mon Nov 29 19:41:25 2004
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 20:39:07 -0700
From: Sinh Vinh <sinh.vinh@ualberta.ca>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: RE: Vietnamese cuisine in Japan
Hi My Lien,
Congratulations on your post-doctoral fellowship at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka and your fascinating research topic.
In my "pre-incarnation", I was a foreign student in Japan from 1963 to 1972. At the time there were not many Vietnamese in Japan. Ingredients to prepare Vietnamese foods were not available in the market either. During my first year at Chiba University, it took us two hours to go to China Town in Yokohama to eat some foods which have coriander flavour! No nuoc mam either. We substituted it with shiossuru, a Japanese version of fish sauce made by hatahata fish. A Vietnamese friend of mine at the University of Tokyo was clever and enterprising enough to plant rau muong in the Sanshiro pond in the midst of its Hongo^ main campus!
Things are different now. You will find quite a few Vietnamese restaurants in any big city. Some herbs are sold at big department stores. Having said so, I should say that though Vietnamese cuisine is becoming popular in Japan, it is still difficult to find things such as cilantro/coriander or lemon grass, etc. Rau die^'p ca' (called dokudami in Japanese) and mints (minto) are available almost everywhere in Japan, particularly the former. When I was a visiting professor at an institute in Kyoto many years ago, my Japanese colleague who was so fond of eating Southeast Asian foods, had his own secret herb garden nearby our institute.
I go back to Japan from time to time to do research or teaching, but I am not aware of the population of Vietnamese residents in Japan. I suggest you to contact people at the BJA (Bridge Asia Japan) in Tokyo. Their telephone number is 03-3372-9777. Their url is hhtp://www.jca.apc.org/baj/
The BJA is an NGO, many people in its office speaks Vietnamese very well. My long-time friend, Araishi Masahiro, and his wife Etsuko, are among those who founded this group. You may be interested to know that once in a while, they also hold Vietnamese cuisine class at their office.
Best wishes.
VS
From gclchew@yahoo.co.uk Mon Nov 29 20:21:08 2004
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 04:19:55 +0000 (GMT)
From: Grace Chew <gclchew@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Vietnamese Diaspora in Japan
Ðịa chỉ/Address:
Hatanaka Bldg 102, 6-21-20 Mimami-Oi
Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0013
JAPAN
Ðiện thoại/Tel: 03-5493-3638
=====
Grace
From malarney@icu.ac.jp Mon Nov 29 20:29:37 2004
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 13:27:57 +0900 (JST)
From: malarney@icu.ac.jp
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Vietnamese Diaspora in Japan
Dear My Lien,
I've been living in Tokyo for almost ten years now and also have some familiarity with the Vietnamese community in Japan. Regarding food, there is in fact a Vietnamese food boom in Tokyo these days with a good number of restaurants as well as a wide variety of food items available in the stores, many of which are imported directly from Vietnam. It would probably be easier to email me directly and I can help you get started.
Cheers,
Shaun Malarney