Domesticating the Salaryman: Marriage Promotion, Hybrid Masculinity, and the Resignification of Reproduction in Japan

This article analyzes the politics of masculinity underlying contemporary marriage promotion efforts in Japan that have been implemented to redress economic and demographic decline. Drawing on theories of masculinities, I demonstrate how official discourse advances a hybrid conception of manhood encapsulated by the figure of a “domesticated salaryman,” defined not only by gainful employment but also by sensitivity, engagement in housework, and joint recreation with his wife. Data from a prominent marriage promotion campaign and interviews with Japanese men and women reveal how, despite its progressive veneer, the “domesticated salaryman” as an ideal and practice fails to challenge entrenched inequalities. Instead, it reflects a classed readjustment of Japanese masculinity as it adapts to the new political economy. By situating this transformation in relation to ongoing structural change, I suggest that men’s imputed place in the economy must inform how we conceptualize the shifting notions of manhood occurring today. When seen against this background, hybrid masculinity is best understood as straddling the realms of production and reproduction, and their respective gendering as masculine and feminine.