Section 5 | Anthropology and Sociology | Session 7A, Session
chair: Brigitte Steger (University of Vienna)
Yohko Tsuji (Cornell University)
This paper explores complexity in the Japanese conception of time, highlighting both a rigid punctuality and a rather great flexibility. The former is epitomized by the Japanese Railways, and a good example of the latter is the Japanese reluctance to make an appointment. We often attribute punctuality to the dictates of the clock and tend to regard flexible handling of time as a temporary suspension of clock time. Though I acknowledge the tyranny of the clock in contemporary Japanese life, I challenge the idea of the clock as the only regulator of time. The paper examines the everyday use of time to demonstrate that social norms and requirements provide different but no less important temporal frames, and at the same time also generate strong temporal pressure. In addition, nature plays an indispensable role in the Japanese reckoning of time. These multiple modes of time and the intricate interplay among them create complex compromises in the apparent contradiction between rigidity and flexibility. The data for this paper come from participant-observation research among Japanese persons in Japan and abroad and also from the relevant literature.
Sachiko Horiguchi (St. Antony's College, University of Oxford)
Hikikomori (social withdrawal) has been discussed as a social problem afflicting young people since the late 1990s. This has led to the establishment of a number of hikikomori support groups which are sometimes called the "hikikomori industry". Based on findings from field research at some hikikomori support groups in the Kanto area, this paper discusses how time and space are managed and conceptualized in supporting hikikomori keikensha, or youths who have experience withdrawing from society. The narratives of hikikomori keikensha reveal gaps in their perception of time and space before becoming hikikomori, during the period in which they were hikikomori, and in the process of recovery. By being shut-ins, hikikomori not only withdraw from the social space but also free themselves from the pressure of punctuality and of speed and efficiency. In their recovery process from hikikomori and becoming an active social member, it is necessary for them to find their place in the social sphere and fill the gap between their pace and the socially expected punctuality. The hikikomori support groups provide spaces with few restrictions of time and space compared to "real" society so that hikikomori keikensha are not pressurized, but in the process of recovery, hikikomori keikensha are expected to internalize punctuality and socially defined values of time and space through various programmes. Through investigating the management of time and space in hikikomori support groups and what the assumptions behind the management are, this paper reveals how time and space are conceptualized in contemporary Japan.
Masae Yuasa (Hiroshima City University)
This paper investigates the conception of time and the time-use of a group of Japanese housewives working for Maple, the third largest Japanese 'network business' which has the fourth largest share of the Japanese female underwear market. In the economic downturn, despite shrinking the sales volume of the company, the number of housewives joining Maple has continually increased. Recent changes in the employment system (deregulation, lack of protection, mothers in the workforce, etc.) have generated feelings of confusion and uncertainty among housewives whose financial security based on their husbands income and their identity as so-called professional housewives are being threatened. Some women react to the pressure to work outside the home but there is little chance of a decent job in the current labour market. In this context, housewives are attracted to networking businesses. Network business is the Japanese term for a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) system, which invites individuals to become sales persons without formalized employment relations and simultaneously expands the sales network by asking those individuals to invite other individuals to join the network. This business system transgresses the existing boundaries of paid/unpaid, private/public, production/reproduction, and has been faulted for locking women into an inferior status in modern institutions. Based on a two-year ethnographic study, the paper investigates both the conception of time and the time-use of those housewives and describes their struggles for identity and autonomy through their efforts to control their time. Their struggles are also analyzed as a part of the process of forming new Japanese gender regime in the era of globalization.