Migratory Narratives through Art-Based Methods: Autoethnography, Watakushi Shōsetsu, and Travel Ethnography in Japan

This article examines the methodological contributions of artbased research methods to understanding migration experiences in Japan. I demonstrate how creative writing methodologies, including autoethnographic narratives, the Japanese I-novel (Watakushi Shōsetsu), and travel ethnography, provide unique insights into the lived experience of high-skilled migration that conventional ethnographic methods cannot capture. This methodological contribution argues that art-based research methods offer distinct advantages for cross-cultural sociological research by bridging the gap between personal experience and structural analysis, revealing how individual migration narratives illuminate broader social phenomena such as belonging, alienation, cultural adaptation, and geographical discovery.