SEMINAR: Men of the �Lost Decade�: Shifting Discourses of Masculinity in 1990s Japan

This free seminar presents an overview of the shifts in discourses of masculinity in Japan at a particularly crucial juncture in that country’s recent history – the ‘Lost Decade’ (‘ushinawareta jûnen’) of the 1990s and early 2000s, a period characterized by economic slowdown and rising unemployment, coupled with a growing collective sense of socio-cultural insecurity and anxiety. These years followed in the wake of several decades of consistent economic growth from the 1950s through until the ‘bubble’ economy boom years of the 1980s, in the course of which Japan had emerged as a major industrial superpower. However, the bursting of the largely real estate and speculation-driven ‘bubble’ in the early 1990s put an end to these economic ‘glory years’ and ushered in a period of prolonged economic stagnation, accompanied by a growing sense of social and cultural dislocation.

At the same time, the uncertainty and apparent loss of national confidence of the 1990s and early-2000s also brought to the surface some very significant socio-cultural shifts. These had been in gestation over preceding decades, but only really became articulated in the public arena in a significant way in the post-Bubble economy years. This included a growing visibility in the public domain of debates about societally-dominant discourses of gender and sexuality, including dominant expectations of men's roles in society. It was really during these years that masculinity as an object of scrutiny – both in academic and non-academic spaces – really emerged in the public arena. Moreover, as a consequence of the changes occurring over these years, the equation of Japanese masculinity with the middle-class, white-collar, work-defined ‘salaryman’ splintered, allowing for numerous different masculinities to emerge into public visibility.

Drawing upon his work on the Japanese salaryman as a gendered construct, Romit Dasgupta reflects upon the ways in which discourses about masculinity unfolded against the backdrop of the wider social, cultural, economic, and political shifts and cross-currents of these crucial ‘Lost Decade’ years.

All welcome!