Please note: This lecture will be held in person (room TBA) and virtually on Zoom. The webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Once you've registered, joining information will be sent to your email. Register for the Zoom webinar at: https://myumi.ch/rwr6E.

Building on scholarship on changing gender and intimacy norms under neoliberalism in Japan, this lecture explores how these transformations are reflected in the realm of romance fraud. Drawing on two contrasting sets of empirical material—interviews with romance fraud victims and publications and interviews with followers and supporters of the fraudster ‘Ririchan the Grantee Gal’—the lecture argues that these seemingly disparate groups are connected by a common underlying dynamic: women's struggle for autonomy and/or recognition within a gendered social hierarchy. It examines how aspirations for self-empowerment and liberation, often intensified by neoliberal ideals of personal responsibility and self-realization, can paradoxically lead individuals towards both victimization and offending.

Dr. Yutaka Yoshida is a lecturer in criminology at Cardiff University. His research explores romance fraud victimization, digital vigilantism, and far-right movements in Japan, with a particular interest in narratives, identity, and technology-mediated social harms. His current work examines how romance fraud victims make sense of their experiences and reconstruct their lives in the aftermath of victimization, drawing on psychosocial approaches.

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