Integration of aspiring artists: Japanese music students in Germany

Abstract

The article examines how students from Japan who attend German music colleges become integrated into Germany’s art worlds while also maintaining connections to transnational art worlds. Although Japan is one of the major countries that sends young music talents to Germany, only a few studies have examined this migration. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Japanese music students in Germany that were conducted as part of the Asian Educational Mobilities Project, the article shows that the reasons for such migration, as well as its effects on music practices, and that future perspectives need a theoretical reorientation toward a transnational perspective. The results indicate that the art practices of aspiring Japanese students depend not only on institutional conditions in Germany but also on students´ transnational networks.