Young Japanese men’s transnational mobility: a case study in Dublin

Abstract

In postwar Japan, the term salaryman, denoting middle-class male employees, has come to be conceptualized as the Japanese masculine norm, and represents men’s authoritative and static agency performed through their roles in the household and the nation-state. Given generational shifts in the middle-class life orientation of Japanese men from being centered on work stability and the responsibilities of work and family to a more self-oriented approach to life, how is transnational mobility practiced among young Japanese men? This article explores ways in which transnational Japanese men in their twenties and early thirties have reacted to and adopted the salaryman ideal, combining an ie (family) ideology with their own wants and needs. Through exploring the life trajectories of several Japanese men who have lived in Dublin on temporary visas, this article argues for a distinctive difference underlined by life stage in the way that they acted with regard to transnational mobility.