Description

The story of Japanese capitalism, held up as a model for economic prosperity and growth, hid nonstandard employment and women’s unpaid reproductive labor in the narrative of success. Once celebrated as a high trust system generating strong economic performance, Japan seemed to have lost its way spectacularly in what some have called the “Lost Decade” of the 1990s. The forms taken by the decades-long crises and the current efforts at resolution must be understood in terms of the specific features of this variety of coordinated capitalism that has dictated events. This juxtaposition of rapid economic success against subsequent failure has eluded theorists’ attempts to explain the enigma of Japanese capitalism. This presentation will identify the institutional sources of labor insecurities behind Japan’s postwar employment system. Gendering institutional analysis has been key to deciphering the enigma of Japanese capitalism.

Heidi Gottfried, Associate Professor of Sociology at Wayne State University, has published several books and articles on gender and work transformation. Her recent book is entitled Gender, Work and Economy: Unpacking the Global Economy. She has edited or co-edited books on Gendering The Knowledge Economy: Comparative Perspectives; Remapping The Humanities: Identity, Community, Memory, (Post)Modernity; Equity in the Workplace: Gendering Workplace Policy Analysis; and Feminism and Social Change: Bridging Theory and Practice. Her publications include “Temp(t)ing Bodies: Shaping Gender at Work in Japan” and “Japan: The Reproductive Bargain and the Making of Precarious Employment.” The Reproductive Bargain: Deciphering the Enigma of Japanese Capitalism will be published by Brill in the spring.