Do Jobs Define Masculinity?

The non-Japanese portrayal of the Japanese salaryman is often an illustration of the unenviable foot soldier of Japanese economic success. Overworked and exhausted, they drag themselves into similar-looking office buildings in their equally similar corporate uniform of black suits with neckties. Admired for their individual sacrifice and hard work as a sign of devotion to help their companies and country grow and prosper, the non-Japanese observants would nonetheless loathe to emulate the way these salarymen worked and lived.

In the Japanese narrative, however, the salaryman lifestyle is not just a matter of sacrificing the individual for the collective good of the company and the economy. Perhaps just as importantly, the salaryman's ability to work hard and bring home the bacon for his stay-at-home wife and their children is in itself a sign of masculinity, in contrast with a Western idea of manhood based on physical strength and vigor. While the outside may see the salaryman's overwork as sacrificing the individual identity for the company, for the salaryman, his hard work may actually enhance his individuality through increased manhood.

The entire salaryman's definition of masculinity requires a rethink as the traditional idea of the worker's relationship with the company changes. As salarymen were stuck at home during COVID, many found themselves accidental digital nomads, prodded by their wives and children to spend less time in front of the computer screen and more time helping out around the house. The ineffective monitoring mechanism of these workers' bosses meant that many found themselves able to be less overworked. This unshackling of the corporate drone, while certainly reversed somewhat post-COVID, persists in some quarters.

At the same time, change in gender roles is only accelerated by COVID. Even before the pandemic, more and more women aspired to an independent career, driven both by the unappealing idea of being tied to household chores and childcare, as well as the real economic reality that one salary is no longer enough to cover household expenditure in a Japan where real wages are in continued decline year after year. As women become full-time workers as well, the salaryman's masculinity, stemming from being the family breadwinner, becomes threatened.

Moreover, the very existence of the salaryman is being threatened by the emergence of the gig economy, and uniquely to Japan, the increasing dependence of firms on low-paid contract workers to save themselves the expense of having to hire expensive permanent full-time workers for which they pay taxes, healthcare, social security, and other expenses besides salary. With the ability to win bread becoming ever more precarious, the male worker becomes ever less confident that their manhood can be maintained through a constant paycheck.

The result is a collective identity crisis for the working male population, gravely in Japan, but also relatable anywhere in the world. For those who have defined themselves by working long hours and getting paid commensurate figures, remote working and the gig economy are both emasculating. As a breadwinner, the man has become both less in absolute amount and future consistency. Even when he has the choice to not work as many hours due to lackluster work monitoring from his superiors, he can feel guilty about potential repercussions, both in job fulfillment and the resulting masculinity, in the long term.

How to rethink? Perhaps going back to the non-economic would be a good start. As the Western definition of large muscles and domineering attitudes toward ladies is increasingly ridiculed by independent women suffering from needless mansplaining, masculinity can be reconnected with gentlemanliness defined by the courtesy of not-so-patronizing lady-first manners and attitudes. Those who fight for equality of the sexes with gusto may particularly be seen as manly by the ladies, if not their fellow men. Either way, a masculinity not connected with employment is in order.

But perhaps more importantly, we could see the very idea of masculinity thrown out of the window. The rise of the LGBTQ+ movement has accompanied a much more fluid definition of gender. The dichotomy between what is masculine and what is not may be headed toward the history pages as the general public increasingly sees gender as a spectrum. Yes, jobs will continue to be precarious and in some cases, fraught with possibilities of disappearance, replaced by cheaper labor or technology. But if the definition of gender becomes precarious as well, should we care all that much about whether our jobs make us manly?