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The Resilience of Hegemonic Salaryman Masculinity: a Comparison of Three Prominent Masculinities

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The Resilience of Hegemonic Salaryman Masculinity: a Comparison of Three Prominent Masculinities LUND UNIVERSITY • CENTRE FOR EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIAN STUDIES The Resilience of Hegemonic Salaryman Masculinity: A comparison of three prominent masculinities Author: Jef Smitsmans Supervisor: Karl Gustafsson Master’s Programme in Asian Studies Spring semester 2014 ABSTRACT It was the aim of this thesis to explore whether salaryman masculinity has lost its status as hegemonic form of masculinity to otaku masculinity or herbivore masculinity. The thesis makes use of the theoretical framework of hegemonic masculinity as first used by R.W. Connell. In order to assess changes in masculinity, sixteen semi-structured in-depth interviews have been conducted with students, both male and female, from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. The main findings of the research were that other than what a great deal of literature on hegemonic masculinity in Japan suggests, the salaryman lifestyle still serves as a powerful ideal in the lives of young students, and that otaku and herbivore masculinity have not taken over the hegemonic status of salaryman masculinity. The fact that it has been suggested otherwise was found to be mostly due to misguided understandings of what the terms otaku and ‘herbivore man’ mean, which in its turn is due to poor ethnological grounding and lack of an emic perspective. Word count: 16.442 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................... 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 RESEARCH PROBLEM ................................................................................................................................................................. 5 RELEVANCE ................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH .................................................................................................................................................... 6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................................................................................. 7 DISPOSITION ............................................................................................................................................................................... 7 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 METATHEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS .................................................................................................................................. 9 RESEARCH DESIGN ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Interviews ............................................................................................................................................................................... 10 CRITICAL APPROACH ............................................................................................................................................................... 11 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................................................................................................... 11 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................................................... 13 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................................ 13 STARTING POINT ..................................................................................................................................................................... 13 HEGEMONY: POWER RELATIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT MASCULINITIES ..................................................................... 14 RESISTANCE AND CHANGE ..................................................................................................................................................... 15 PUTTING THE THEORY TO WORK: FINDING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITIES ..................................................................... 15 CRITICAL DISCUSSION OF THE THEORY ............................................................................................................................... 17 CONCLUDING REMARKS ABOUT THE THEORY .................................................................................................................... 18 LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................................................... 19 POST-WAR PERIOD .................................................................................................................................................................. 19 INTEREST FOR JAPANESE SALARYMEN: “LEARNING FROM JAPAN” ................................................................................ 19 THE BEGINNING OF STUDYING JAPANESE MEN-AS-MEN .................................................................................................. 20 ESTABLISHING THE SALARYMAN AS HEGEMONIC FORM OF MASCULINITY IN JAPAN .................................................. 21 THE STUDY OF POST-BUBBLE AND MILLENNIAL MASCULINITIES IN JAPAN: ASSESSING CHANGE ............................. 21 HERBIVORE MEN AND OTAKU AS EMERGING MASCULINITIES ......................................................................................... 25 Otaku ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 25 Herbivore men ...................................................................................................................................................................... 27 CONCLUSION TO THE LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................................... 29 EMPIRICAL DATA DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................................... 30 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................................ 30 THE INTERVIEWEES ................................................................................................................................................................ 30 MEANING OF SALARYMAN, OTAKU AND HERBIVORE MEN ................................................................................................ 31 Salaryman .............................................................................................................................................................................. 31 Otaku ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 33 Herbivore Men ...................................................................................................................................................................... 35 THE SALARYMAN LIFESTYLE AS IDEAL ................................................................................................................................ 38 The importance of University Education .................................................................................................................. 38 Male employment ................................................................................................................................................................ 39 Marriage and children ...................................................................................................................................................... 41 Daikokubashira ................................................................................................................................................................... 42 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................................... 45 3 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................... 49 APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................................................. 53 APPENDIX I: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS .................................................................................................................................. 53 APPENDIX II: LIST OF INTERVIEWEES ................................................................................................................................. 54 4 INTRODUCTION Research problem As an undergraduate
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