Using the Keio Grant for the Development of Academic Research, my research about Social Markers of Acculturation ("SMA") has advanced in two ways : 1. First, I was able to complete a study about which SMA Japanese people expect immigrants to master to be socially accepted in Japanese society and workplaces. 2. Second, I could move closer to developing a quantitative measure of acceptance in Japanese society and workplaces for immigrants as well as long-term foreign residents of Japan.
For #1 above, I completed a paper, "Constructing Who Is Japanese : A Study of Social Markers of Acculturation in Japan" which is now being reviewed for publication in an international journal. I gave presentations about this research to the following organizations this academic year: Birkbeck College, University of London (March 9, 2018), Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, University of Oxford, (March 8, 2018), SIETAR (Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research) Japan (January 19, 2018), Anthropology of Japan in Japan (AJJ) (December 9, 2017), Institute for the Liberal Arts, Doshisha University (December 8, 2017), and the International Academy for Intercultural Research (June 27, 2017).
For #2 above, I finished a paper, "A New Framework of Workplace Acculturation: The Need to Belong and Constructing Ontological Interpretive Spaces," which was accepted for publication in the journal Intercultural Communication for the September, 2018 issue. I presented this research twice, to 2 separate audiences (only for Fellows of the society on June 25 and then for general members on June 26) at the international biennial conference for the International Academy for Intercultural Research (June 25 and 26, 2017) in New York City. Also, I wrote the questions for the instrument which is based on the theory described in this paper. After writing the first draft of questions, I circulated this draft to a panel of experts in my field, who then rated each question for clarity and conceptual appropriateness. I followed this with a statistical test to determine the most highly-rated questions, and based on these results, finalized the survey. Then, the survey was translated into Japanese (through a paid translator) and uploaded online (through a paid specialist). This specialist in surveys and statistics also assisted me in running the necessary statistical tests to determine which survey questions were rated highest by the panel of experts in my academic field. I also consulted with him about statistical tests which would be best to run on the survey data once it has been compiled. Finally, I began to recruit participants for this study.