Paper short abstract:

The paper will offer a critical examination of the recent shift in the focus from men to corporations' management as reflected in the shift in the popularity of the buzzwords Ikumen and Ikuboss. This will be analyzed against the background of the current interest in Work and Life balance.

Paper long abstract:

In 2010 the Japanese government launched the Ikumen project to promote the active participation of fathers in family life as a countermeasure against the worrying declining birth rate. The ikumen fad also attests to the growing cultural interest in new fatherhood or in the re-definition of Japanese family and family roles. Ikuboss was publicly proposed by the NPO Fathering Japan in March 2014, and was soon followed by the government's launch of the Ikuboss Award to recognize corporate managers who provided good and supportive condition for fathers. Since 2015, the ikuboss campaign seems to have gained momentum, the public frequently exposed to new "ikuboss declarations." Employers from the private and public sector declare their commitment to become ikubosses, and to encourage the balance between the commitment to work and the joy of the family and the home. Both terms relate to child raise (ikuji): however, they differ in focus, the latter switching from men in general to corporations, and more specifically their management.

The paper - based on a qualitative research focusing on Fathering Japan and related associations concerned with raising consciousness about the involvement of fathers in child care - will offer a critical examination of this intriguing shift from ikumen to ikuboss in the context of the relationship between the family and the Japanese company. Work and Life Balance has become a hot topic in Japan. It is certainly too early to predict whether the recent ikuboss boom will mark a profound change in the nature of the strong alliance between the company, its loyal male employees and their families. Nonetheless, it is hard to ignore the active involvement of managers in forming modern fatherhood, and the "normality" of giving "managers" public recognition through the media for their role in re-designing fatherhood and caring men. Are we facing a genuine change of the corporate-family balance as it was formed in the postwar years of the economic growth, or merely the reproduction of the educational role of the company, as in the same formative years of the Japanese economy, which produced the normative "ordinary Japanese family."