Summary of SEAA Reads, session 17 from June 26, 2026

Fragile Kinships: Child Welfare and Well-Being in Japan by Kathryn Goldfarb (Duke U. Press)

The summer book club was hosted by Merry White for the seven colleagues across several time zones. The idea of "rhetoric versus reality" ran through the pages and the session (what is supposed to be, in this case a model/normal/unremarkable family, versus what is actually experienced and structured, in this case young people fostered from babies in some situations through adulthood or almost adulthood). The earliest field notes go back to 2009 and the book was published in 2024. So the span of long relationships between some of the people interviewed and the author is truly longitudinal. Emotion enters into many parts of lived experience but not so often into social science subjects where it is so central to the larger theme of human development and sustaining a person's well-being in the chapters of this book. Whether similar conversations, and formulating similar questions would be possible for an ethnographer native to the language and society of Japan is an open question. But the fact is that Kate Goldfarb as an outsider was in such a position to observe and participate in ways only she could. After identifying the mesh of complications and unsatisfying facets in the various forms of foster care in Japan, the concluding section does shine a light on the crux of the many problems: failure among foster children to have a sense of "given" (immutable, perduring) family members to count on across the decades of life. By extension, "eyes of the community" keep children of the local residents in safekeeping; something foster children may not necessarily count on since they are not anchored to a lineage or fixed abode.

The book club's flow of conversation covered a lot of ground. For example, there was the fundamental role of being embedded in a lineage or field of kinship relationships that are inherited, not made by personal choice. Lacking those things contributes to a deficit self-definition: seeing oneself not by what is there, but in terms of what is not there (relative to the narrative model for 'normal lifetime'). The author's use of "kin" as a verb came up; "kinning" to mean the process, occasions, and obstacles to forming enduring relationships with others inside and outside of the residential space. One person saw possible parallels in the mother/father experience: how children seem always to gravitate to the mother for solving problems or seeking relief, no matter if it is the father who handles household duties and cares for the children most of the time. So the father has more "kinning" work to do than the (default; gratis) experience of the mother in "kinning." Another person commented on the model for blood-based family relationships: this can sometimes result in violence, in its own way falling short of the normative image. So the 'rhetoric versus reality' gap is not limited to young people with no ready-made kin network.

A series of comments came up with regard to the ethnographer being present on the page, a change for a generation or two before now. It is very effective in bringing readers along with the anthropologist in the fieldnotes and in the interpretations presented in the chapters. Sometimes one is more observer than participant, but sometimes it is the reverse and all energy goes into participating with little fieldnote writing to show for it. Continuing on the theme of 'rhetoric vs. reality', the case of dying without kin came up, both for Japan and for Korea. A dissertation based on a Japanese funeral home was mentioned, as well as the cinematic dramatization of somewhat unusual end-of-life situations in 'Okuribito' (English title, 'Departures'). Also adapted on screen, "Rental Family," about specialist 'role players' to fill spots in the ceremonies of funeral, PTA meeting, wedding, and so on. And yet as the drama develops, the role-players sometimes become emotionally invested, too.

Another line of conversation came up in light of 'rhetoric vs. reality' in the case of gender roles for mother and father. Small changes can be seen in Japan, but the recent legal provision for Paternity Leave is still underused. As for cultural models and definitions of what a "good child" looks like, most studies seem to center on the concept of 'compliant' (sunao) and trusting. And yet this, too, subsumes the abiding place of kin when forming and strengthening sense of self. Without that field of relationships, can a child form or aspire to 'sunao' and trusting the ever-changing cast of characters caring for him or her?

Interestingly, in the final pages of the book some comparative details from USA are introduced: very different assumptions of personhood and dominant residential model (home-based in USA instead of institutional context in Japan) do still lead to young adults unmoored from the master narratives and models in the respective societies.

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The next session of SEAA Reads will be October 3, 8 p.m., EST: Clara Han, Seeing Like A Child: Inheriting the Korean War (2020) DISCUSSION LEADER, Nan Kim.