Paper short abstract:

This presentation aims at explaining how the economic crisis is changing the meaning of work in Japan and more specifically what are the consequences of the flexibilization of the work regime for young workers in Tokyo.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation aims at explaining how the economic crisis is changing the meaning of work in Japan and more specifically what are the consequences of the flexibilization of the work regime for young workers in Tokyo. To do so, I will look at the articulation between work and social participation in examining how the work regime is creating important discontinuities and tensions between emerging practices and dominant representations. Based on interviews with young adults in Tokyo, I will discuss how young temporary workers are making sense of their job and how they define their participation and their role within what is becoming a flexible life. I would like to bring forward two "moments" of this life - the flexible labour and the individual experience - by examining how young temporary workers define their sense of belonging and their contribution to society. I would argue that these "moments" are ways of being, i.e. specific ways of thinking, feeling and acting the relationship to things, to others and to themselves. They are both a world of new opportunities, political commitment or participation. In other words, I seek to show how these moments translate a form of potentiality reflecting individual experiences of political economy through the articulation of a new definition of work and one's position in society. This approach will allow a better understanding of the relationship between representations, political economy, and the meaning of work for young adults in Tokyo in a context of economic hardship.