Vanishing Wings of Japan's Periphery - A More-Than-Human Ethnography of Hokkaido and Okinawa, Focussing on Two Rare Birdspecies

• Applicant: Marius Palz, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology ; Asian Studies
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 562432585

The project “Vanishing Wings of Japan's Periphery” aims at a comparative documentation of humans’ entanglements with their environment in the face of biodiversity decline in Japan’s northern and southern periphery (Hokkaido and Okinawa Island). The relationship between humans and specific landscapes with a focus on two endangered bird species that dwell within these environments will be researched through Multispecies Ethnography embedded in the theoretical framework of Extinction Studies. This interdisciplinary work with a qualitative anthropological approach at its core aims at an understanding of more-than-human entanglements as being culturally as well as ecologically significant. It explores how human actors relate to biodiversity decline exemplified by two “flagship species” (Blakiston fish owl in Hokkaido and Okinawa rail on Okinawa Island) and accompanying conservation management, and how people’s experiences and worldviews shape these processes. Special attention will be paid to indigenous perspectives of the Ainu and Ryukyuan people respectively, as their relations to the focus species has changed significantly since the end of the 19th century due to colonial processes including displacement, militarism, and landscape development. A long-term stay at a research institution in Japan from where I will access two field sites will make the objectives realistically achievable. This work needs to be done urgently, because the current environmental crisis leads to a rapid disappearance of species. The project aims also at providing more information to rethink conservation policies. Japan provides an interesting case study because responses to biodiversity decline differ from European approaches, and human population decline in rural Japan raises interesting questions on how human-wildlife coexistence can look like in post-growth societies.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: Japan
• Host: Professor Dr. Motoji Matsuda