A sociological history of salarymen and Japan's modernization.
Item
-
Title
-
A sociological history of salarymen and Japan's modernization.
-
Identifier
-
AAI3245060
-
identifier
-
3245060
-
Creator
-
Shibata, Yoshio.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Catherine B. Silver
-
Date
-
2007
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Sociology, Social Structure and Development | Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations | History, Asia, Australia and Oceania | Anthropology, Cultural
-
Abstract
-
The Japanese "salaryman" (corporate businessman) has been known for his hard-working orientation and now for "karoshi" (death from overwork) that became epidemic since the latter part of the 1980s. Why do salarymen work as hard as they do? Refusing culturalist explanations, this dissertation adopts a guiding hypothesis that the salaryman existence is a product of Japan's modernization. The two historical and theoretical foci of this genealogical study of salaryman subjectivity are analysis of modern technologies of power from Foucauldian perspective and of modern competitive games from Bourdieu's perspective. The Japanese state since the late 19th century tried to discipline the population in gender specific ways and developed various disciplinary power mechanisms, which were subsequently transplanted onto corporations during the wartime period. On the other hand, the social imagery of "salaryman" lifestyle marked by westernization of consumption and modern gender division of labor emerged as an ideal family lifestyle since the 1920s. In the early postwar period, unions, with their aspiration to realize salaryman lifestyle, struggled with managers and resulting compromises were institutionalized into so-called "Japanese management system." This institutionalized arrangement includes long-term competition among salarymen within the internal labor market of each corporation under an evaluation system that works as "panopticon." At the same time, cultural nationalist discourses that define the Japanese salarymen as "collectivists" have been utilized as a behavioral norm. To the extent that salarymen aspire to promotion, they have to strategically subordinate themselves to the panoptic gaze of evaluation. Thus salarymen have been involved in the game of showing "loyalty to the corporation," which is a very individualistic game despite the "collectivist" appearances. Their aspiration for promotion has been strengthened by their desire to realize "middle status" consumption lifestyle and the unified aspiration in work and consumption, coupled with the working of the disciplinary power, leads some salarymen to karoshi. Based on these analyses, I also argue that the current neo-liberal reforms do not mean a change from "collectivism" to "individualism": the reforms are bringing an intensification of disciplinary power and individualistic competition that were already part of the (old) Japanese management system.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
