Cool vocations in japan's global pop culture industries: from young fans to skilled animators and manga artists

Abstract

This dissertation examines how adolescent pop culture fans seeking "imaginary solutions" for adulthood interact with the structural processes of vocational education and a globalized pop culture production industry job market. A qualitative study of students enrolled as animation and manga majors at two Japanese vocational schools in Tokyo, Japan based on qualitative fieldwork, interviews and surveys of students and staff, and internal school data explores the following issues. 1) How explicit vocational training and implicit socialization at vocational schools transform pop culture consumers into skilled workers in the pop culture industry. As youth are transformed during the school-to-work process, they also impact the practices of both schools and production employers. 2) How Japan's non-university post-secondary educational sector is shaped by market pressures to entice enrollment and informal hiring agreements with industry employers. Targeting young pop culture fans to enroll in two-year vocational programs produces an influx of socially awkward and introverted students who must be re-socialized to meet workplace communications and social interaction expectations. 3) How industry professionals hired as contract lecturers provide legitimacy for schools with students and employers, while as master craftsmen and role models they train students to meet employers' standards for skilled workers. 4) How the push to meet global market demands for Japanese pop culture products is transforming the Japanese domestic industry into a two-tiered global job model, with consequences for youth who train for the lower tier of skilled working class jobs in terms of social status, quality of life, and job mobility.