Men of Uncertainty: The Social Organization of Day Laborers in Contemporary Japan (Suny Series in Japan in Transition)

Gill, Tom

ISBN 10: 0791448282 / ISBN 13: 9780791448281

Published by State University of New York Press, 2001

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # Q-0791448282

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Men of Uncertainty: The Social Organization of Day Laborers in Contemporary Japan (Suny Series in Japan in Transition)
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791448282
• ISBN 13: 9780791448281
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 14 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

A fascinating exploration of the subculture of Japanese day laborers, whose lives depart radically from the traditions of stability Westerners associate with Japan.

Men of Uncertainty presents an unknown side of Japanese society-the world of Japan's day laborers (hiiyatoi rodosha), the urban labor markets where these men gather to find work (yoseba), and the cheap lodging districts where many of them live (doya-gai). Nearly every major Japanese city has a yoseba. These are centers of proletariat culture in the heart of the postindustrial metropolis, similar in many ways to the prewar American skid row. Within these districts, day laborers tend to live outside the two dominant institutions of contemporary Japanese society: the nuclear family and the company.

Focusing mainly on the day-laboring district of Yokohama, and with extensive comparative ethnography from five other cities, author Tom Gill finds a society of men who have opted out of the regular, communal way of life. This book details their libertarian, egalitarian lifestyle, oriented to the present yet colored by an awareness that in Japan today being a yoseba man usually means exclusion from mainstream society, absence of family life, and a career that can easily lead to homelessness and an early death on the street.

About the Author

Tom Gill is Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, Tokyo University.