Acting Straight? Non-heterosexual Salarymen Working With Heteronormativity in the Japanese Workplace .pdf (original) (raw)

This chapter draws attention to the intersections and collisions between discourses of work, masculinity, and sexuality in the context of Japanese corporate culture. Despite significant socio-cultural shifts over recent decades the discourse of the middle-class, white-collar heterosexual ‘salaryman’ continues to be a signifier for Japanese corporate masculinity, and indeed, for Japanese masculinity as a whole. Yet, the reality is that there are salarymen who may not be heterosexual, but nevertheless need to engage on a day-to-day basis with the heteronormative ideological expectations of corporate masculinity. This chapter, drawing on interviews with individual salarymen who identify as non-heterosexual, explores the complex relationship between the publicly articulated heteronormative ideology of the workplace, and the day-to-day micro-negotiations with the expectations of this ideology by non-heterosexual individuals.