Postmodern Japan Middle Class Related Mythology and Nostalgia
Postmodern Japan Middle Class Related Mythology and Nostalgia

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores the transformations of middle class mythology in contemporary Japan, studying phenomena, connected to the objective and subjective middle class identification. After 1970s, when the share of people self-identified with the middle class reached 90% Japanese identity has been shaped around the sense of “all nation belonging to the middle class”. The economic prosperity after World War Two and the fact that within two generations Japan turned from a poor country into a rich society, provide the foundations of the myth of “a middle class society”, zealously maintained by political parties and the media. Since the end of the 1990s, the issue of growing economic inequality is becoming a topic of intense discussion. During this period Japanese society underwent recessions and crises followed by periods of revival; as a result Japan changed its direction from the lavish lifestyle of the 1980s to growing sense of deepening social inequalities. These transformations brought about the popularity of a new myth, this time about melting and even vanishing middle class, and nostalgic reminiscences of “happy late 1970s and 1980s” when supposedly Japanese people used to live in better society. The March 11, 2011 natural disasters and the ensuing nuclear crisis in Japan have destroyed another myth – that of prime importance of consumers` comfort, and of nuclear power plant safety. The ecologically and environmentally respon-sible consumption and lifestyle are an important resource for achieving vitally important task of revitalizing our-day Japan.

• Details
• Contents