情報学環客員研究員でメディアスタジオでも制作をおこなっているディペシュ・カレルさんのドキュメンタリー「ジャパニ〜ネパール 出稼ぎ村の子どもたち〜」が、2020年6月にNHK BS1スペシャル及びNHKワールド・プレミアムで放送されました。この作品は、日本で移民として働くネパール人の親たちとネパールの村に残された子どもたちの暮らし、また、それぞれの思いを丹念に映した作品です。

ディペシュさんからのコメントを下記に掲載いたします。番組はNHKワールドオンデマンドで来年の６月まで視聴できますので、ぜひご覧ください。

（鳥海希世子）

“JAPANI／ジャパニ
A documentary on Nepali immigrants in Japan and their left-behind children in Nepal”

This documentary tells the story of a nine-year-old girl named Bipisha, one of the left-behind children. Her mother and father are absent, working in Japan, as are most other parents from the rural village of Galkot in Nepal. The documentary depicts the psychological problems and emotional complexities between Bipasha and her parents. Bipisha was just three months when her parents left home to work in Japan. The documentary highlights the contemporary issues surrounding transnational migration in a global context and demonstrates the social reality in the local context.

Unlike a traditional TV documentary program, this documentary emphasizes ‘showing’ over ‘telling’, as discussed by Grimshaw (1999). The documentary is based on my PhD dissertation at GSII at the University of Tokyo and JSPS postdoctoral research at Sophia University. Utilizing audio-visual data from multi-sited visual ethnographic fieldwork in Japan and Nepal, the documentary conveys a deeper level of the feelings, emotions, and experiences of the mothers and their left-behind children and family members in Nepal. The story of the documentary will come from the characters’ point of view so that the audience can hear and feel their language, tone, and gestures.

The documentary has been already broadcasted from NHK BS1 Special and NHK WORLD PRIME for several times. The documentary still available NHK on demand. I hope the documentary helps to promote a mutual understanding between immigrants and Japanese societies, cultivates empathy, and contributes towards an inclusive society.

(Dipesh Kharel)