Ordinary Refugees: Social Precarity and Soul in 21st Century Japan

Abstract

In the aftermath of the bursting of the Bubble economy in 1991, a turn to more flexible labor since the late 1980s, and the recent disaster (of earthquake/tsunami/nuclear reactor accident) of March 11th, the socioeconomic equilibrium in Japan has been shaken. In contrast to the post-war era of high economic growth when lifelong jobs and a middle-class lifestyle were the norm, today these staples of “good living” have become undermined or unobtainable for more and more Japanese. Not only are more workers irregularly employed (called the “precariat” or precarious proletariat by activist Amamiya Karin), but there are signs of a more pervasive precarity—experienced by more than just the precariat—at the level of an evisceration of social ties, connectedness with others, and a sense of security. Taking the example of “net café refugees”—young working poor who live in net cafés—as paradigmatic of what has been called the “refugeeization” of Japan as a place no longer materially or socially secure for many of its citizens, the essay studies the condition of “social precarity” in post post-war Japan. This is looked at through the lens of affect: not only the state of precarity as it is experienced affectively (as a pain and longing for what still gets assumed to be “ordinary”), but also the affects deployed in practices adopted by the socially disenfranchised and economically precariat to survive. Seeing in these extra-economic networks of survival a glimmer of social change—a recalibration of human life and relationality in a new direction—I consider them to be a biopolitics of life from below, constituting new zones of (post post-Fordist) social possibility for Japan/ese.

HIV prevention, precarity, and fragmented landscapes of service provision in Ukraine

“…Precarity refers to insecurity in material, existential, and social life (Allison 2012(Allison , 2013. It is inhabited by particular people in particular moments.…”

Adulthood as Action

“…Their lifestyles, choices, educational and family backgrounds have been debated in Japanese media and academia over the past 15 years with them described variously as lazy immature slackers or victims of deregulated labour laws and a more competitive employment market (Yamada, 1999;Genda, 2001;Kosugi, 2008;Slater, 2010). Changes in the institutions of school, employment and family have been highlighted as a reason for the increase of such workers and have been emphasised in discussions of individual life chances and future opportunities (see, for example, Allison, 2012Allison, , 2013Brinton, 2010;Genda, 2001;Honda, 2005;Kariya 1991Kariya , 2001Kosugi, 2008;Miyamoto, 2002).…”

“…Indeed, it has been suggested by some that male freeters are unable to become adults unless they find full-time jobs (Hidaka 2010), which would make male adulthood fully contingent on the kinds of work contract that a person is able to secure. 5 Allison (2012Allison ( , 2013, in her recent work on post-bubble social precarity, suggests that young people in precarious positions are unable to achieve adulthood-as defined through the transitions of gaining full-time employment, marriage, children and buying a home-and consequently feel disillusioned and hopeless. Young people, she argues, are "refugeed" from such possibilities but continue to long for these postwar statuses.…”

“…For Bloch, hope is a strategy that is future-oriented and located in the "Not Yet Conscious"-a consciousness that develops through looking forward in anticipation. Anne Allison (2012Allison ( , 2013 suggests that for youth who are unable to achieve the postwar normative life course rooted in secure employment, hope can be stunted and crippled (see also Amamiya and Kayano, 2008;Yamada, 2007). Aspirational goals rooted in neo-liberal capitalist subjectivity can therefore lead, for some, to an "annihilation of the spirit" (Allison, 2013:69).…”

Disaster and poverty : the differential impacts of disaster on the poor in the Gulf Coast region.

“…As the poor being the most affected, there is a strong correlation between disaster and poverty due to the exposure to physical and economic vulnerability (Iuchi & Esnard, 2008;World Bank, 2012). They face greater restrictions in physical abilities, have fewer social contacts, experience more trepidation about area hazards, and possess inadequate resources for preparedness and response actions (Allison, 2012;Phillips, Metz, & Nieves, 2005;Shaw & Goda, 2004).…”