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Since the 1990s several Fijians have entered rugby union competitions in Japan, attracted predominantly by the financial incentives offered by large corporations who dominate Japanese rugby. In Japan, Fijians face numerous economic, demographic and sociocultural experiences that challenge the vaka i taukei (the 'traditional' Fijian way of life). Migration thus becomes a lens through which Fijians review their identity and place in the world. This paper discusses the sociocultural complexities that underpin critical migrant perspectives on the communal patterns that dominate the Fijian way of life. Based on research conducted in Fiji and Japan, this contribution provides an anthropological perspective on transnational Pacific Islander rugby mobility. It pays particular attention to aspects of sociocultural transformation -a theme previously neglected in scholarship on Pacific Islanders in professional rugby.

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This essay explores the emergence of the BFBF and how this online group made ‘bartering’ and other practices of exchange central to surviving Covid-19. We analyse the posts and discussions of BFBF participants in 2020. We are interested in the way moderators and participants position this contemporary way of conducting bartering as an alternative to market trade that has deep cultural roots in Fiji. Such forms of exchange have serious implications for the study of digital practices and relational systems of exchange in Fiji and beyond.

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