Paper short abstract:

This presentation investigates how Japanese literature and the media negotiate diversity at the workplace. Analyzing the TV drama Hanzawa Naoki and the novel it is based on I argue that it expresses the increasing wish of Japanese Society to reorganize work, the workplace, and its processes.

Paper long abstract:

Diversity at the workplace is usually associated with categories such as gender, age or sexual orientation. I suggest a further dimension of diversity: the way work is structured at the workplace and how this translates into routines of work processes, interpersonal relations, personal development and the achievement of personal goals. This presentation examines how the Japanese TV drama Hanzawa Naoki and the novel it is based on addresses these topics.

Hanzawa Naoki (TBS 2013, based on the novel Ore tachi baburu nyūkō gumi by Ikeido Jun) was the most successful Japanese TV series of the past 30 years. It is about a banker who does not bow down to his superiors and does not support them in doing their dirty business. Hanzawa has a different idea of how bankers should act and fights the odds at his workplace in order to live up to his ideals and to reach his goals. He personifies a new archetype of a white collar worker who differs significantly from the hegemonic idea of the Japanese salaryman with regards to his performance at the workplace and interactions with superiors, colleagues, and clients.

I argue that the success of this TV drama is partially due to the fact that it depicts a utopia that expresses what the majority of Japanese people is wishing for: a re-definition of the way someone has to work in a company and a renewal of workplace organization.

Hence, it promotes diversity at the workplace in terms of supporting more personal freedom and the ability to actively participate in reshaping work processes of the Japanese business world.