Freeters into precariat: counterculture, counterspectacle, and the production of alternative space in dystopic Tokyo

Abstract

Since the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy in 1990, the ranks of young part-time and temporary workers known as “freeters” have swelled. Growing frustration among young people with the lack of good jobs and the failure of conventional politics to provide a viable solution has materialized in recent years in the form of a new social movement and countercultural scene composed largely of these young irregular workers. In alliance with anti-neoliberalism social movements in other countries, they use the politically charged term precariat (precarious + proletariat) to describe themselves. Their protests are directed against neoliberal economic policies and the privileging of consumer capitalism as well as the lack of regular jobs for young people. Over the past five years, this movement has staged a number of unusual public protests called 'sound demos'--unusual because they incorporate rave music, dancing, costumes, and floats--in the heart of Tokyo. Their politics are also expressed through alternative social spaces and networks composed of countercultural bookstores, cafes, bars, art spaces, discussion salons, recycle shops, and communal living spaces in central areas of Tokyo. These remarkable developments have implications for understanding resistance to large scale processes of neoliberal globalization as well as for the ways in which Japanese society and culture are transforming. This paper exmaines how this social movement and its associated countercultural scene and precariat identity have been developing through both the production of public spectacles and the production of alternative spaces and networks. It argues that the alternative spaces and networks are as important a part of their politics of contesting neoliberal globalization and resignifying the dominant meanings of urban space as the public protests are.