An anthropological account of how religion helps sustain bonds within transnational families.

How do faith, family, and migration intersect in the intimate lives of transnational couples? This ethnography examines Japanese-Filipino marriages in contemporary Japan to reveal how gendered Catholic practices, cultural negotiation, and the politics of belonging shape everyday life. Set in Northern Kyushu, Making Home explores the often tense dynamics of these relationships—how love, faith, and social expectations are navigated across multiple domains. Through long-term fieldwork, it shows how Filipino migrants and their Japanese partners create “contact zones” where faith becomes both a resource for connection and a site of struggle. 

Religion, far from being a private matter, becomes a powerful tool for migrants to sustain family ties, negotiate identities, and transform the intimate spaces they live in. Centering religious practices within migration studies, this book offers fresh insights into the evolving landscape of transnational families in Japan.

Mario Lopez is an anthropologist and migration specialist based at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Everyday Transnational Encounters
Chapter 2: Migratory Flows between Japan and the Philippines
Chapter 3: The Affective Domain of Japanese-Filipino Marriages
Chapter 4: The Politics of Intimacy
Chapter 5: Community and Belonging
Chapter 6: Beyond Mobility: Rethinking Transnational Life in Contemporary Japan
Bibliography
Index