Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the changing and contested social meanings of entrepreneurship at the northern periphery of Japan through an examination of the career choice event in which entrepreneurship is featured as an emerging alternative to the stable, rational, and proper life course.

Paper long abstract:

The scope of possible work futures has long been limited for Japan's brightest young talent. Systemic and socio-cultural forces in post-war society have channeled top students from non-professional tracks (often male) onto a predetermined ‘rail of life’ leading to two primarily acceptable career choices: longterm employment contracts with large firms or life in the public service. Despite recent top-down efforts by Japanese policymakers and universities to promote entrepreneurship, it has yet to find acceptance among the general public as a viable alternative to these traditional career pathways. The persistent association of entrepreneurship with risk makes it an economically insecure work choice in the eyes of many.

And yet, a growing number of elite students in Sapporo, Hokkaido are expressing the authentic desire to go ‘away from the rail’ and attempt life as an entrepreneur. This unconventional career decision entails a conscious rejection of stability and economic security in exchange for economic, as well as social, risk. Through careful analysis of the aspirations and experiences of these ‘pioneers,’ this paper will argue that the decision to become an entrepreneur in this context represents the pursuit of a new relationship between the worker and their labor, as well as the pursuit of a divergent conceptualization of the good life. This paper will explore the changing and contested social meanings of entrepreneurship at the northern periphery of Japan through an examination of the career choice event in which entrepreneurship is featured as an emerging alternative to the stable, rational, and proper life course.