(SEPT. 18)–The UP Asian Center launched the book “Thinking Beyond the State: Migration, Integration, and Citizenship in Japan and the Philippines” exploring migration issues on citizenship and nationality, incorporation and integration, human security, welfare, philanthropy, identity, and multiculturalism last Aug. 16 at its Seminar Room.

The book features nine studies by Filipino and Japanese scholars that “address the need to think beyond prevailing state discourses in problematizing migrations between Japan and the Philippines by focusing on the presence of other actors involved in this/these migration process/es,” Prof. Johanna Zulueta, PhD, the book’s editor said. Zulueta is an associate professor of Sociology at the Faculty of International Liberal Arts, Soka University, Tokyo. “Human mobility has been a widely examined phenomenon in the social sciences, and in this increasingly globalized world, migration continues to be of significant concern,” she said in the book’s introduction.

At the launch, three of the book’s contributors shared a gist of their respective chapters and presented their experiences in doing Japanese Studies, not only in Japan and the Philippines but also in other Asian countries. The contributors were Asst. Prof. Jocelyn Celero, PhD, at the UP Asian Center; Asst. Prof. Megumi Hara, PhD, at the Department of Liberal Arts, National Institute of Technology, Wakayama College, Japan; and Asst. Prof. Benjamin San Jose, PhD, faculty of Japanese Studies and Political Science at the Ateneo de Manila University.

The book’s six contributors were Assoc. Prof. Junichi Akashi, faculty of Political Science at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan; Assoc. Prof. Ron Bridget Vilog, professor and chair of the International Studies Department, De La Salle University (DLSU), Manila; Prof. Maria Rosario Piquero-Ballescas, a former professor of Sociology at the Toyo University, Japan and UP Diliman; Assoc. Prof. Melvin Jabar, at the Behavioral Sciences Department (BSD), DLSU; Yellowbelle Duaqui, an assistant professorial III at BSD, DLSU; and Assoc. Prof. Sachi Takahata, at the School of International Relations, University of Shizuoka, Japan. Piquero-Ballescas’ co-authors were Orlando Ballescas, a Filipino church volunteer and Hiroya Takamatsu, a PhD student of Social and Human Sciences of the School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Also present in the event were Prof. Joefe Santarita, PhD, dean of the UP Asian Center; Prof. David Jonathan Bayot, PhD, Executive Publisher of the DLSU Publishing House, the local publisher of the book; Prof. Ricardo Jose, PhD, director of the UP Third World Studies Center, moderator of the forum; and Hiroaki Uesugi, director of the Japan Foundation, Manila, which is instrumental in the publication of the book.

“Thinking Beyond the State” is a 320-page paperback book with a dimension of 6 (width) x 0.7 (thickness) x 8.9 (height) inches and weighs approximately 1 pound (453 grams).

This was the second time the book was launched in the country. The first was on Apr. 20, 2018 at DLSU. The local edition can still be purchased from DLSU through an email to Darren Mangado (darren.mangado@dlsu.edu.ph) or Vilog (ron.vilog@dlsu.edu.ph). The international edition of the book will be published by Sussex Academic Press and will be released on Oct. 1 through Amazon.com at US$ 44.95 (PhP 2,450.00) each.