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This is one of the most rewarding and thought-provoking works on Japan I have read in a long time. Readers are immersed in the intellectual and activist world of a pioneering Japanese international NGO and confronted with fascinating questions about religion, national identity, and the humanistic desire to make the world a better place. An outstanding achievement. Becoming One tells a strikingly different development story between Japan and Myanmar. Its graceful, clear-eyed view reveals ambivalent possibilities of international solidarity, alternately inspiring and disturbing, grown from muddy connections between neotraditional faith and ecologically attuned agrarian labor. Becoming One is a rich ethnographic study of a Japanese NGO's development and aid work in Myanmar that traces its religious roots in Ananaikyo, a postwar new religion, and its transformation into a carrier of a nonreligious Shinto environmentalism. It provides a persuasive account of how particularistic Japanese values and ideals--Nihon no seishin--were translated and cultivated through its staff and training program. The ideological and financial links established between the organization's leaders, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the nationalisitic Nippon Kaigi, confounds and challenges our conventional association of international aid with liberal politics. Highly recommended.

This book is an accessible and finely balanced explication that is equal parts empathetic and critical. . . . The richness of the ethnographic narratives, particularly the way in which the aspirations and criticisms of the people involved are elucidated, presents perspicacious insights into the way a particular 'Japanese' social, cultural, and economically sustainable development model is cultivated and promoted at the international level.--Patrick McCartney, Nanzan University Asian Ethnology 79:1, 2020 Becoming One is a rich ethnographic study of a Japanese NGO's development and aid work in Myanmar that traces its religious roots in Ananaikyo, a postwar new religion, and its transformation into a carrier of a nonreligious Shinto environmentalism. It provides a persuasive account of how particularistic Japanese values and ideals--Nihon no seishin--were translated and cultivated through its staff and training program. The ideological and financial links established between the organization's leaders, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the nationalisitic Nippon Kaigi, confounds and challenges our conventional association of international aid with liberal politics. Highly recommended.--Mark R. Mullins, coeditor of Disasters and Social Crisis in Contemporary Japan: Political, Religious, and Sociocultural Responses Becoming One is especially significant as an object of study given not just the NGO's unusual pedigree, but also the historical relationship between modern Japan and Burma-Myanmar and the ways in which OISCA forces us to reexamine the politics of international aid and development.--Nathan Hopson New Books in East Asian Studies Becoming One tells a strikingly different development story between Japan and Myanmar. Its graceful, clear-eyed view reveals ambivalent possibilities of international solidarity, alternately inspiring and disturbing, grown from muddy connections between neotraditional faith and ecologically attuned agrarian labor.--Peter Redfield, author of Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Borders This is one of the most rewarding and thought-provoking works on Japan I have read in a long time. Readers are immersed in the intellectual and activist world of a pioneering Japanese international NGO and confronted with fascinating questions about religion, national identity, and the humanistic desire to make the world a better place. An outstanding achievement.--Simon Avenell, author of Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement

This book is an accessible and finely balanced explication that is equal parts empathetic and critical. . . . The richness of the ethnographic narratives, particularly the way in which the aspirations and criticisms of the people involved are elucidated, presents perspicacious insights into the way a particular 'Japanese' social, cultural, and economically sustainable development model is cultivated and promoted at the international level.--Patrick McCartney, Nanzan University ""Asian Ethnology 79:1, 2020"" This is one of the most rewarding and thought-provoking works on Japan I have read in a long time. Readers are immersed in the intellectual and activist world of a pioneering Japanese international NGO and confronted with fascinating questions about religion, national identity, and the humanistic desire to make the world a better place. An outstanding achievement.--Simon Avenell, author of Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement Becoming One is a rich ethnographic study of a Japanese NGO's development and aid work in Myanmar that traces its religious roots in Ananaikyō, a postwar new religion, and its transformation into a carrier of a ""nonreligious"" Shinto environmentalism. It provides a persuasive account of how particularistic Japanese values and ideals--Nihon no seishin--were translated and cultivated through its staff and training program. The ideological and financial links established between the organization's leaders, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the nationalisitic Nippon Kaigi, confounds and challenges our conventional association of international aid with liberal politics. Highly recommended.--Mark R. Mullins, coeditor of Disasters and Social Crisis in Contemporary Japan: Political, Religious, and Sociocultural Responses Becoming One is especially significant as an object of study given not just the NGO's unusual pedigree, but also the historical relationship between modern Japan and Burma-Myanmar and the ways in which OISCA forces us to reexamine the politics of international aid and development.--Nathan Hopson ""New Books in East Asian Studies"" Becoming One tells a strikingly different development story between Japan and Myanmar. Its graceful, clear-eyed view reveals ambivalent possibilities of international solidarity, alternately inspiring and disturbing, grown from muddy connections between neotraditional faith and ecologically attuned agrarian labor.--Peter Redfield, author of Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Borders

This book is an accessible and finely balanced explication that is equal parts empathetic and critical. . . . The richness of the ethnographic narratives, particularly the way in which the aspirations and criticisms of the people involved are elucidated, presents perspicacious insights into the way a particular 'Japanese' social, cultural, and economically sustainable development model is cultivated and promoted at the international level.--Patrick McCartney, Nanzan University ""Asian Ethnology 79:1, 2020"" Becoming One is a rich ethnographic study of a Japanese NGO's development and aid work in Myanmar that traces its religious roots in Ananaikyō, a postwar new religion, and its transformation into a carrier of a ""nonreligious"" Shinto environmentalism. It provides a persuasive account of how particularistic Japanese values and ideals--Nihon no seishin--were translated and cultivated through its staff and training program. The ideological and financial links established between the organization's leaders, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the nationalisitic Nippon Kaigi, confounds and challenges our conventional association of international aid with liberal politics. Highly recommended.--Mark R. Mullins, coeditor of Disasters and Social Crisis in Contemporary Japan: Political, Religious, and Sociocultural Responses Becoming One is especially significant as an object of study given not just the NGO's unusual pedigree, but also the historical relationship between modern Japan and Burma-Myanmar and the ways in which OISCA forces us to reexamine the politics of international aid and development.--Nathan Hopson ""New Books in East Asian Studies"" Becoming One tells a strikingly different development story between Japan and Myanmar. Its graceful, clear-eyed view reveals ambivalent possibilities of international solidarity, alternately inspiring and disturbing, grown from muddy connections between neotraditional faith and ecologically attuned agrarian labor.--Peter Redfield, author of Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Borders This is one of the most rewarding and thought-provoking works on Japan I have read in a long time. Readers are immersed in the intellectual and activist world of a pioneering Japanese international NGO and confronted with fascinating questions about religion, national identity, and the humanistic desire to make the world a better place. An outstanding achievement.--Simon Avenell, author of Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement

Author Information

Chika Watanabe is lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Manchester.

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