The culture of work: Japanese stories of labor, precarity, and everyday life

English-medium elective

This course examines how contemporary Japanese literature, film, and popular culture from the 1970s to the 2020s represent the changing world of work. As Japan moved from postindustrial prosperity through economic stagnation to the present era of precarity and automation, narratives of labor have become central to debates about exhaustion, overwork, burnout, and social inequality. Through readings of fiction, film, manga, and digital media, students explore how writers and creators depict the pressures of late-capitalist work culture, the erosion of stable employment, and the search for autonomy and meaning in a system defined by stress, replacement, and low pay. The course also considers speculative and alternative imaginaries like postwork, care-based, or communal models of labor that challenge conventional notions of productivity and success. All materials are provided in English translation or with subtitles.