The past few decades have witnessed the growth of non-Japanese population in Japan where the discourse of homogenous nation has been dominant in re-imagining the post-imperial nation. By the time when the Japanese government issued a plan to promote ‘multicultural coexistence’ albeit at the local level in 2006, many issues surrounding ‘foreign residents' had become visible because of advocacies and policies. They have thus stimulated the production of research on these subjects, bringing scholars across disciplinary boundaries. However, as Bourdieu criticised elsewhere, they tend to uncritically receive the object of their research where photos of ‘foreign residents’ are often used to re-present otherness. In this presentation, I will examine the ways in which walking in the city for my recent performing arts project as well as for my earlier research has enabled me to engage with the subject of marginalities linking the past and the present. First, reflecting on my earlier field/homework experience as a commissioned or ‘ghost’ researcher, I will show how my walking across the city has enabled me to comprehend the city challenging the conventional use of photos to represent otherness. Then, reflecting on my recent performing arts project about a decade later, I will show the ways in which my performing arts project to adapt and appropriate a Noh play with my attempts to revive lyrical descriptions and acts of walking and the role of ghosts, has led me to revisit the post-industrial city to engage with the subject of marginalities. Pointing out limitations with the existing research and methods, including my own, I will argue that walking both as research and art practice can allow us to question a priori assumption and challenge the force to render us/them hyper-visible or invisible.
