Chapter 3: Japan: Repairing and Mending Broken Objects with Gold: The Story of a Global Citizen Coming-of-Age

This chapter addresses a Japanese girl dreaming of becoming a global citizen. The international encounters in my childhood motivated me to pursue education and work experiences in the United States where I saw a microcosm of the world. After 20 years of first-handedly exploring the world, I resettled in Japan nurturing my Kintsugi life.

I was born and grew up in the 1980s in the historic port city of Yokohama in the greater Tokyo area of Japan. The port of Yokohama has historical significance as it opened for the U.S.–Japan Treaty Amity and Commerce in 1858 after feudal Japan had closed the country for 200 years. Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan rapidly modernized herself, adopting Western ideas and methods. Yokohama became a formal residential area for foreigners, and many elements such as the steam trains, gas lamps, telephones, ice cream, and beer were spread from Yokohama throughout Japan. The city, a suburb of Tokyo, has continued to grow and flourish to this day with a population of approximately 3.8 million and a strong economy undergirded by the presence of a striving industrial zone. My immediate community is located only 10 minutes by train southwest of the ever-growing Japanese capital of Tokyo. I felt the remnants of the good old days of tight-knit communities that raised children in multigenerational families. However, I also witnessed the community rapidly transforming into a growing urban residence area where large apartment complexes were constructed which resulted in high population mobility and fewer connections with neighbors.