The making of transnational urban space: financial professionals in the global city Tokyo

Borders of immersive fieldwork - a methodological critique of entrepreneurship

“…These can be generated through “traditional” interviews, but also through the collection of a breadth of data, from document analysis (McElwee et al, 2017) to interviews with other witnesses (including former policemen in rural areas for instance). Such data creation could be extended to fieldnotes, artefacts and videos (Drakopoulou-Dodd, 2014; Thompson and Byrne, 2022), internal notes from an organisation (Lassalle and Naczyk, 2008), photographs (Yamamura, 2021), and a wealth of informal exchanges with other actors and observations (Yamamura and Lassalle, 2020b). Data is not just written facts or audio transcripts of “semi-structured” interviews but also leads to innovative modes of theorising, including using metaphors (Clarke and Holt, 2017; Pattinson et al, 2020).…”

From global city makers to global city-shapers: Migration industries in the global city networks

“…Yet, the approach is from a relational economic geographical perspective (Hoyler et al, 2018), focusing mostly on corporate impacts rather than taking a migration lens to the issue of global city spaces. Apart from a contribution by Yamamura (2018) in the volume, which looks at the urban spaces of transnational professionals, the urban actors discussed in the space-making focus on corporate real estates (Lizieri and Mekic, 2018;Parnreiter, 2015) and do not cover transnational professionals' perspective on the urban spaces as migrants. The other notable, yet quantitative approach on the nexus is Sanderson et al (2015), measuring global urban centralities and their connection to immigration.…”

“…(Interviewee JG34) Quite clearly embedded into such corporate context and managed by the intermediary actors of the migration industry in the form of relocation companies and real estate agencies, transnational professionals' urban spaces begin to be strongly drawn to the choices made by these actors. Amongst the different socio-spatial patterns that can still be observed within the group of transnational professionals (see Yamamura, 2018), one pattern also well-known from other global cities is the creation of 'expat bubbles'. These areas are located either in central parts of Tokyo with a longer history of prestigious foreign residents in the Minato ward (where consulates and embassies can be found) or in newly developed areas within the central city with upscale buildings, supported by urban renewal and redevelopment projects.…”

“…These areas used to be part of the upper, respectively aristocratic class in the Edo feudal era, which had been expropriated and confiscated during the Meiji restoration, that is, the abolishment of the feudal system in the mid-19th century, and after being used as military properties were given to foreign embassies and consulates (cf. Seidensticker, 1985; Yamamura, 2022b).…”

“…Embedded originally in the world system theoretical and economic geographical approaches, global cities research has much discussed the global city making 'from above' by focusing on the transnational corporations deciding on the location of global cities and the locations of corporate real estates in such cities (Lizieri and Mekic, 2018;Parnreiter, 2015). However, little has been done on the migration side of these global cities (with exception of Yamamura, 2018, andin quantitative terms, Sanderson et al, 2015). The question of how migration industries connected to these corporate mobilities lead to not only the making but also shaping of the global cities has been so far neglected.…”