From Play to Career: Redefining the Value of Cultural Practices

Japan’s transition into the 1990s was marked by the collapse of its bubble economy, putting a term to the long period of economic growth and prosperity which had come to characterize the post-war context. As social and economic structures began to change, so did their articulation with culture - a process which participated in slowly redefining the role and the importance of said culture inside of contemporary Japan. Although questions pertaining to culture had most often concerned discourses on Japanese identity (nihonjinron) in earlier years, many policy makers and academicians now turned their eyes to Cool Japan, and its potentially profitable popular culture. Indeed, even though it became increasingly difficult for young adults to find regular employment and adhere to social scripts institutionalized before the 1990s, play seemed to be saving the day.

To better understand the articulation of culture with both socio-economic structures and individuals’ life paths, I look at a particular set of leisure practices which characterize both contemporary forms of play in Japan (asobi) and its popular culture - practices identified as kosupure and which revolve around costume play (e.g., ‘cosplay’). Following over two years of fieldwork in Tokyo, my research aims to better define how these cultural practices articulate participants’ identities and how they interact with other significant aspects of their daily lives. For some, play became a ‘career’ - in both the literal and subjective sense of the word. In this presentation, I aim to better define the role and the importance of leisure practices and culture in a social and economic context perceived by participants as uncertain, and in which value has become an increasing concern; be it for Japan’s economy, to better understand opportunities and constraints linked to access and participation in said practices, and for contemporary selfhood in general.