From lahures to global cooks: Network migration from the western hills of Nepal to Japan

Abstract

In the last few years, more than 1,800 Nepalis have migrated from a single rural village, Malma, located in the Western Hills of Nepal, to work as cooks in Nepali restaurants in Japan. So many people from the village are working in Japan that nowadays the local people have nicknamed it 'Little Japan'. These new economic opportunities became popular in Malma after 1990, and are now seen as the primary means of upward social mobility in the village. However, the process of migration is still difficult. With a few exceptions, each migrant pays 1.5 million Nepali rupees (US$15,000) to the restaurant owner to get a work visa. There are already more than 3,000 Nepali restaurants and over 55,000 Nepali migrants in Japan, making it the largest South Asian community in the country. Based on research in Japan and Nepal conducted from 2008 to 2015, this article explores the causes and patterns of migration from Malma to Japan, and the nature of the transnational ties between the Nepali migrants and their homeland. This article demonstrates how social capital has played an important role in the migration of Malma villagers to Japan, thus providing both the opportunity and incentive for many families to achieve upward mobility, but without solving the inequalities and status gap between the owner/manager and cook that complicate these social networks.