Paper short abstract

Despite the "dekasegi" trend observed in other regions, this paper explores the transnational mobility of Japanese men in London to re-evaluate their professional identities and career trajectories. My findings suggest that destination choice is deeply intertwined with the specific form of capital.

Paper long abstract

Recent media discourse in Japan highlights a rise in "Dekasegi wa-hori (labor migration Working Holiday makers)”, driven by domestic economic stagnation and subsequent diversification of lifestyles. This trend suggests that young Japanese are increasingly moving abroad to secure economic capital. However, this study reveals a counter-narrative among Japanese men in London. Drawing on qualitative interviews, this research examines how these men—at a life stage where conventional Japanese masculinity expects institutional career stability—negotiate their identities through transnational mobility.

Contrary to the "dekasegi" trend observed in regions like Australia, my informants in London primarily pursue cultural capital in creative fields such as fashion and photography. For these men, London functions not as a site for high-wage labor, but rather as a space that allows them to temporarily detach from the rigid expectations of the Japanese labor market while seeking global validation for their professional identities.

This paper argues that the transnational mobility of Japanese men is increasingly bifurcated. While some pursue economic survival, those in London utilize the Working Holiday scheme to negotiate their masculinity by accumulating cultural prestige rather than immediate financial gain. This choice represents a strategic negotiation: they risk the delay of attainment of conventional adulthood to pursue self-realization that transcends domestic corporate norms. These findings suggest that destination choice is deeply intertwined with the specific form of capital—economic or cultural—that individuals seek to convert into their future social status.

Paper short abstract

How do Japanese musicians and ballet dancers build careers in European art worlds? Drawing on mobility capital, skills valuation, and migration infrastructure, this paper examines how skills are socially constructed across contexts — shaping decisions to stay, re-migrate, or return to Japan.

Paper long abstract

This paper investigates how Japanese professional musicians and ballet dancers navigate professional mobility within European art worlds, focusing on the interplay between their emergent career strategies and the social meanings attached to skills. Given the increasingly diverse mobility trajectories of young middle-class Japanese, the study argues that understanding contemporary artistic mobility requires attention not only to structural opportunities but also to how skills are differently valorised across contexts — and across professional fields characterised by precarity, clustering effects, and winner-take-all dynamics.

Empirically, the paper draws on qualitative data combining previous research with young Japanese middle-class professionals with overseas education and work experience, and new interview and questionnaire data with professional musicians and ballet dancers active in the Czech Republic. These two groups illustrate the distinctive pathways through which Japanese cultural professionals engage with Central European art worlds, and the varied strategies through which they build careers, navigate precarious labour markets, and develop long-term trajectories within them.

Analytically, the study draws on the concepts of mobility capital and motility to illuminate how artists accumulate and deploy the capacity for movement as a career resource, and on scholarship on the social construction of migrant skills to explain how technical competencies are evaluated differently depending on labour market norms and cultural expectations. These perspectives are complemented by attention to lifestyle migration and transnationalism as frameworks capturing the non-economic, identity-driven, and open-ended dimensions of artistic mobility.

This allows the paper to explore how participants' internationally acquired skills are interpreted, recognised, or discounted within European art worlds, and how these evaluations shape aspirations to stay, re-migrate, or return to Japan. By foregrounding skill as a socially mediated construct embedded within specific migration infrastructure — including institutional recruitment channels, artist visa frameworks, conservatoire networks, and transnational Japanese communities — the paper contributes to Japanese studies by revealing how mobility decisions are inseparable from the negotiation of professional identity across cultural boundaries.

Paper short abstract

This paper analyses how Japanese male dancers pursue aspirations across borders and asks what kinds of ‘diversity’ are accepted in global ballet markets. It examines the extent to which these markets prioritise individual talent regardless of body types, aesthetics and ethnicity.

Paper long abstract

Men remain a small minority among ballet learners in Japan, yet more male dancers are studying abroad and entering prestigious overseas schools and companies. In 2021, there were approximately 7,900 male learners (around 3%) out of roughly 256,000 learners nationwide (Showa University of Music, Ballet Research Institute 2021). This paper examines how boys and men navigate stigma and prestige across amateur and professional pathways, focusing on masculinity, the body and aesthetics.

It is sometimes argued that stigma surrounding boys and men in ballet is lower in Japan than in some other countries, partly because alternative masculinities have gained visibility since the 1990s, contributing to broader acceptance of male dancers (Monden 2019). Japanese male professionals, however, often encounter different constraints outside Japan. As ballet increasingly circulates as a global cultural product, rather than solely a Western form of ‘high art’, international mobility is shaped by organisational diversity and inclusion agendas that seek to widen recruitment and representation (e.g. Paris Opera Ballet 2021). Declining participation in some Western classical arts may also increase demand for dancers from abroad, potentially widening opportunities for Japanese dancers.

Despite these shifts, Japanese dancers may face constraints linked to body size, proportions and gender expression. Although ballet is now a global cultural form, institutional standards of the ‘ideal’ body and aesthetic remain grounded in European norms. Accounts from male dancers who entered elite schools and companies highlight the difficulty of meeting physical demands framed through Western expectations. Even those who graduate near the top of their cohort may struggle to secure contracts or advance due to height or physique. Some report pressure to alter their bodies, while others describe feelings of depression associated with perceived physical differences. Some ultimately return to Japan to continue performing or to establish companies and schools that support the next generation.

This paper analyses how Japanese male dancers pursue aspirations across borders and asks what kinds of ‘diversity’ are accepted in global ballet markets. It examines the extent to which these markets prioritise individual talent regardless of body types, aesthetics and ethnicity.