Masculinité en crise : transformation des pratiques et des représentations de la masculinité chez les jeunes salariés japonais
During the second half of the twentieth century, several structural processes have led the ideology of the Japanese employment system to be globally accepted, not only as a legitimate system, but as a model to be followed and pursued as well. The “salaryman”, the iconic figure of this system – that is the male employee of the big Japanese corporations or administrations – has been imposed into Japanese society as a unique model of masculinity. The ideology conveyed by the employment system has then been seen by a few authors as a hegemonic discourse, a culturally dominant image of work and daily life in Japan. Today, following the economic conjuncture caused by the economic crisis of the 1990s, the image of the salaryman is crumbling and is loosing its hegemonic value to give way to new practices and values antagonistic with the previous discourses and the representations of work and masculinity. A historical analysis and a field survey (semi-structured interviews) would show us how the salaryman can be analysed as a hegemonic discourse and why the new practices and representations of the young Japanese men reflect the newly fragmentary nature of the image of the salaryman within a crisis context. These results will lead us to more broadly consider the implications of the transformations of the Japanese employment system in the social change in Japan.
Japan Social change Hegemony Ideology Representation Practice Masculinity Capitalism Company Historical anthropology