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Paper short abstract

This talk examines the relationship between local culture and literary form by analyzing how the affordances of coterie magazines enable day laborers in Kamagasaki to construct personhood and reclaim subjectivity.

Paper long abstract

Japan’s largest day-labor area, Kamagasaki, has been depicted in numerous Japanese novels, manga, and films from the 1930s to the present. Some representations sensationalize the area’s poverty, while others romanticize the neighborhood by conflating its precariousness with the promise of escapism.

This talk examines the relationship between local culture and literary form by analyzing how the affordances of coterie magazines enable day laborers in Kamagasaki to construct personhood and reclaim subjectivity. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the development of a nationwide collective learning movement, community-based activities, and labor union activism in Japan, literary coterie magazines created by underclass and working-class workers flourished. Against this backdrop, in Kamagasaki, the small-circulation magazine Rōmusha Tōsei (The Livelihood of Day laborers, 1974-1985) emerged as a collective effort by day laborers and activists. The magazine addresses topics ranging from critiques of labor conditions to representations of everyday life to imaginings of solidarity among various marginalized groups in East Asia.

Previous studies have highlighted Rōmusha Tōsei’s contribution to social activism and group solidarity in Kamagasaki (Haraguchi, 2012; Nakayama, 2022). In contrast, by scrutinizing day laborers’ essays on topics such as favorite food, familial nostalgia, and blood selling, I argue that these writings foreground the concept of dignity through their representation of diverse lived experiences—encompassing both quotidian pleasures and profound sorrow. The narrative and descriptive features inherent to the essay form, particularly first-person narration and vivid sensory detail, create a sense of intimacy and authenticity in the day laborers’ works. In doing so, this presentation emphasizes the importance of attending to individual voices in representations of urban margins, rather than projecting revolutionary imaginaries onto residents or privileging collective identity over personal experience.