Male Cultural Reaction: Sentiments and Subcultural Strategies towards Gender Shifts in the Labour Market in Japan

This paper explores the self-aware, parodic and at different points bitter, survivalist and creative directions of male reaction to new and less-rewarding labor market conditions.

The significant increase in non-marriage (hikon) and active single status (shinguru) and lifestyle in Japan from the 1990s is socio-culturally linked to a period of disjuncture, chaos, and confusion. Many generations of men and women of the age that might previously have dated and romanced with the opposite sex and gone on to accrete to the core of Japan’s postwar nuclear family society have found themselves more solo than they may have wanted or intended.

This paper with slides and some short film clips of filmed fieldwork taken in Summer 2013, explores the self-aware, parodic and at different points bitter, survivalist and creative directions of male reaction to new and less-rewarding labor market conditions. Misogynist critiques of over-demanding women and ‘professional housewives’ have spread in the midst of male labor and class insecurity, reframing female independence as a financial rejection of low-paid suitors and as the direct cause of male unhappiness. This paper will try to capture the flavor, comedy and sociopolitical discussion underlying himote (unwanted men) awareness and the peculiar homology it bears with other emergent conservative subcultures.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Presenter: Sharon Kinsella