Paper short abstract:

This paper is an ethnographic study of the precarious work conditions of women managers in Japan, due to gender role expectations, exploitative corporate practices permitted by Japan's antiquated labor laws such as nominal management, and ineffective labor unions to protect their interest.

Paper long abstract:

An unprecedented number of Japanese women may have had the opportunity to pursue management-tracked careers in recent decades, but women managers remain a small minority still, are paid considerably less than male managers, and have limited authority to influence corporate decisions.

Women managers' working conditions have worsened in recent decades in the increasingly flexible work environment. In addition to being persistently treated as cheap, flexible labor resource to meet Japan's economic contingencies, they are also to deal with a wide range of exploitative corporate practices such as nominal management - permitted by Japan's antiquated labor laws - which undermines their position as corporate executives.

With labor unions in Japan remaining ineffective to this day in providing these workers with a means to seek redress, many woman managers are ironically compelled to appealing to enacting the gender roles expected of women to cope with their ambivalent identity and sense of self-worth.

Despite a plethora of studies on precarious labour, extensive focus has been made on the dire conditions of unskilled worker, while little attention has been given to considering how the processes of change under the neoliberal regime has also rendered the jobs of corporate managers as insecure, unstable and precarious.

This paper draws on ethnographic data gathered from personal interviews to examine the dynamic interplay of gender and affect in shaping the precarious work conditions in a corporate environment. It extends anthropological discussions on the notion of precarity by incorporating managerial work and gender to elucidate the expansive influence of institutional structures on individuals' susceptibility to corporate exploitation and ideological manipulation.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the multiple meanings of communication noryoku (ability to communicate) in contemporary Japan, drawing on a team-ethnography of communication skills workshops run by an adult with hattatsu-shogai (developmental disability) and long-term research on hikikomori and hattatsu-shogai.

Paper long abstract:

In contemporary Japan, communication noryoku, or the ability to communicate, is considered one of the most important skill-sets for new graduates seeking employment. What exactly does communication noryoku mean, and how do youth and adults in Japan cope with the social demands to communicate "well"? This paper draws upon one-year-team-ethnographic fieldwork conducted by Sachiko Horiguchi and Junko Teruyama, in communication skills workshops run by an adult identifying with ADHD and autism spectrum disorder (hattatsu shogai tojisha) around the Tokyo area, as well as the presenters' long-term research on hikikomori (socially withdrawal) and hattatssu shōgai (developmental disability, including ADHD, autism spectrum disorder [ASD], and learning disability), and explores the multiple meanings of communication noryoku in contemporary Japan.

After a brief historic overview of how and why communication noryoku has come to be increasingly seen as a must-have skill in Japan, data from participant observation in the communication skills workshops, which we shall call "Sandbox," as well as narratives from "Sandbox" leader, facilitators, and participants will be presented. "Sandbox" workshops, inspired by theatrical methods, are designed mainly for adults with ASD and focus on improving communication skills through "trying out" a variety of communication tasks, but are open to all that are interested. The ethnographic data from these workshops will be analyzed through insights from Horiguchi's and Teruyama's individual research spanning over a decade on children, youth, and adults suffering from communication problems, namely hikikomori and hattatsu shogai. We will focus on ways in which the ideals of communication are framed and negotiated within competing paradigms of "Japanese high context" modes of communication, symbolized in the popularized expression, "kuki wo yomu" (reading the air), as well as "direct and straightforward American, low-context" modes. The bodily, sensory, and affective ideals of communication will also be explored, along with the emphasis on verbal and bodily expressions of acceptance and empathy. Finally, we will reflect on how the two anthropologists performed differently in the communication skills workshops, in an attempt to highlight the roles of the ethnographer's bodily and sensory perceptions in ethnographic fieldwork.

Paper short abstract:

This paper draws on an ethnographic study on junior academics who are responsible for professional development of faculty members and provide accounts of how they are lost in third space of the university in Japan and how their lived experiences and Japanese concepts help them navigate their lives.

Paper long abstract:

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MEXT, introduced and recommended institutional faculty development in 1999 and later mandated it in 2008. As a result, universities created the role and position of faculty development practitioners. Those faculty development practitioners have been involved in crafting a genre of faculty development that reconcile policy requirement, university's requirements, and their personal understanding. This paper draws on an ethnographic study on junior academics who are responsible for professional development of faculty members, faculty development, in Japan.

The work of faculty development takes place in a territory between the conventional academic and professional domains, which Whitchurch (2008) terms third space. Characteristics of third space include ambiguous working conditions, non-positional authority, and often outside mainstream communication channels, but safe space to be creative and experimental (Whitchurch 2008). Those who work in third space have to deal with issues led by unfixed work, no role model, no set career path, unclear sets of skills and body of knowledge, and little understanding of the role from other staff (Whitchurch 2008), which is exactly what faculty development practitioners in Japan are faced with.

To deal with the complexities and to fulfill their duties, and to also manage their own career path, each member began to rely on individual past experiences, professional values, and career prospects to make decisions about their work and professional identity. As a result, culturally-rooted Japanese concepts such as "on", "shigarami" and "tantōsha" seem to help them feel connected and deal with multiplicities of their identity.

In the presentation, I at first describe how those practitioners are lost in the third space. I then provide accounts of how lived experiences eventually inform their decision-making and stories of practitioners who came to intentionally or unconsciously use these Japanese concepts to navigate their working life and formation of their professional identity. I end with a consideration of how unconsciously embedded Japanese-ness appear when one's professional identity becomes unsteady.