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Paper short abstract

Analyzing 700 Japanese Gen Z, this study identifies a structural bifurcation in values across clothing, food, and housing. The dichotomy between "Rational Survivors" and "Sensory Explorers" reveals a heterogeneous logic of strategic resource optimization rather than simple low-desire patterns.

Paper long abstract

Understanding the consumption patterns of Japanese Gen Z, specifically young adults aged 18 to 29, is a critical priority for contemporary sociological and economic analysis. While existing research has primarily highlighted cost-efficiency as a defining characteristic of this demographic, this study seeks to further elucidate the complexity of their internal value structures. This study moves beyond such singular frameworks by analyzing the interconnected value systems of this age group across the three essential pillars of life: clothing, food, and housing. The methodology utilizes K-means clustering applied to normalized selection ratios across 18 distinct criteria variables. This ratio-based approach controls for individual response volume, allowing for a precise evaluation of relative value priorities rather than simple frequency. By examining survey data from approximately 700 respondents, the research identifies a structural bifurcation in consumption logic, demonstrating that these choices are manifestations of a systematic value orientation that governs broader socio-economic behavior.

Empirical results identify two statistically significant "tribes" defined by distinct resource allocation models. The Rational Survivors represent a segment that prioritizes a utility-based framework; quantitative analysis reveals their decision-making is heavily weighted toward economy, functionality, and safety, with a significantly higher mean share for cost-related factors compared to the other group. Conversely, the Sensory Explorers demonstrate a decisive shift toward aesthetics and emotional fulfillment, where the relative weight of design and brand worldview exceeds that of functional utility. This data-driven divide suggests that the "lost decades" of the Japanese economy have not produced a uniform "low-desire" generation, but rather a heterogeneous one where functional optimization and symbolic self-expression exist in a sharpening dichotomy. The study concludes that resource allocation is a strategic choice: the Rational group seeks security through pragmatism, while the Sensory group seeks meaning through curated experiences. Recognizing this structural divergence is indispensable for theorizing the complex socio-economic reality and the fragmented value systems of Japan’s younger generation.

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Paper short abstract

Kawaii might be on the most successful cultural Japanese exports ever. But what are its roots in Japanese culture, what does its global acceptance mean, and how does it actually work as an aesthetic category distinct from that of the beautiful?

Paper long abstract

Kawaii might be a global phenomenon, with huge economic relevance and ramifications in marketing, design, and communication, and yet actual aesthetic or philosophical reflections on it are still scarce. In this paper, I wish to discuss it through the lens of phenomenology, then applying the gathered insight towards contemporary Japan and its cultural relevance.

Kawaii, or "cute", is a complex aesthetic stance that is not only turned towards specific kinds of objects, but which in turns allows the subject to assume a specific style of consciousness. On the object-pole (noema), the characterizing trait of kawaii is a dominance of the oral sensorium, the multimodal complex of taste-touch-smell that is dominant in the infant, and becomes secondary in an "adult" aesthetics centered on visual detachment. Kawaii things are thus "sweet", "round", "soft", "colorful" and "small", often meant to be owned, consumed and manipulated rather than simply admired from afar.

But on the subect-pole (noesis), the appeal of kawaii is the momentary, mediated return to infant-consciosuness that the attuned interaction with things kawaii can allow. As defining traits of this infant-consciosuness we can highlight "play", a state of whimsical suspension of adult responsability and of the usual distinction between real and unreal; "nostalgia", a more mediated sense of tenderness for a real or imaginary past, projected on objects or places; and "innocence", the emotional response before another subject that is not yet aware of harsher elements of existence.

As an aesthetic category connected to care and infancy, kawaii is also highly gendered, connected to forms of enforced, negotiated, and revolutionary femininity. Lastly, the interaction of the noematic and noetic elements of kawaii is evident in the "free deformation" that makes possible to "kawaiify" things that would not normally be so, such as reptiles, monsters, inanimate objects. In terms of image ecology, a study of kawaii reveals the importance of an "expressive function" in images, central to East Asian aesthetics, alongside and contrasting the "mimetic function" privileged in most European art, thus opening a whole new landscape for historical and comparative studies.

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Paper short abstract

This paper examines J.League mega-events as cultural products that function as ritual spaces in which social structures are performed and well-being is negotiated. Drawing on ethnographic data, it explores the relationship between growth, social development, and contemporary ritual life.

Paper long abstract

The notions of development and well-being are embedded in a discourse often dominated by economic logics centred on the idea of growth. Whether economic, financial, or urban, development is frequently considered legitimate only insofar as figures and indicators continue to rise. A similar logic can be observed when development is applied to the realm of sport, where ongoing financialisation has given rise to numerous projects aimed at “developing” peripheral and/or economically disadvantaged regions through sport-related initiatives. Over recent decades, anthropological theory has sought to disentangle development from its economy-centred semantics, proposing alternative understandings of growth that encompass sustainability, social development, and well-being (Brownell 2023; Escobar 1995). This shift has paved the way for new lines of inquiry that examine the extent to which economic development overlaps with (or diverges from) social development.

This paper analyses the entanglement between the J.League, established in Japan in 1993 marking the beginning of professional football in the country, and processes of socio-economic development in rural/peripheral areas. The J.League project emerged both as an attempt to transform Japan’s sports culture through investment in a globally popular sport and as a strategy to revitalise both urban and peripheral regions. Three decades after its foundation, the project can be considered relatively successful from both cultural and economic perspectives: it has improved and expanded football infrastructure and contributed to the widespread diffusion of football culture across the archipelago. However, while existing literature has addressed some of the socio-economic implications of the J.League (Horne 2002; 2004), the anthropological impact of its mega-events on supporters’ ritual practices, well-being, and forms of social development remains underexplored.

After outlining a theoretical framework that situates the concepts of ritual, well-being, and development within a contemporary socio-economic context, the paper draws on ethnographic case studies conducted among Japanese professional football supporters from different geographical areas, aiming to highlight variations in the ritual experience of mega-events and to examine how well-being is negotiated within a contemporary society shaped by capitalist value systems.

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Paper short abstract

Japan’s debate on migration stresses language and integration, yet even highly skilled migrants face cultural barriers. This paper examines foreign creatives in Japanese game studios, asking how shared passion for creative work can bridge cultural gaps and support migrant integration.

Paper long abstract

Unlike its Western counterparts, Japan has only recently started to publicly debate the increasing numbers of migrants. Despite a less than 5% population, concerns are rising over their presence in Japanese society. The consensus is that migrants need to integrate and learn the language to achieve “multicultural co-existence”. Although the target of political critique are usually blue-collar worker migrants from South-Asian countries (so-called low-skilled migrants), those categorized as either white-collar workers, “global talents”, “highly skilled workers” or “expatriates” are not much better integrated, despite enjoying a modicum of political respect granted by their jobs. Many studies regarding highly skilled migrant integration have shown that there are still systemic as well as cultural barriers that must be addressed before integration can be achieved. Most studies show that some of the biggest reasons that impede integration are cultural differences, especially unspoken customs and rules that are rarely expressed verbally. (Yorozu 2022, Oishi 2021, Hof and Tseng 2020, Chiavacci 2012).

This presentation explores what possibilities arise when migrants are driven by more than financial incentives, namely a drive for self-realization through “creative work”. Choosing video game studios as case study allows us to explore how a meaningful relationship with work can act as a bridge between migrants and Japanese locals. Previous studies, based on North American and Western European contexts, show that migration and international collaboration are core parts of the production pipeline, but this generally happens within a share cultural heritage (Houška 2025, Vanderhoef 2021). Migration to Japan, especially in the creative industries, is a rather new phenomenon, that can help us explore how shared passion can supplement the lack of shared culture. Who are the people who choose a career in Japanese games rather than its Western competitors? What mechanisms allow this kind of migration towards an industry that is politically significant (Cool Japan and national branding)? Lastly, to what extent does a shared passion for childhood games and animation help the integration of migrants?