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San'ya Blues: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo
Over the years, Edward Fowler, an American academic, became a familiar presence in San'ya, a run-down neighborhood in northeastern Tokyo. The city's largest day-labor market, notorious for its population of casual laborers, drunks, gamblers, and vagrants, has been home for more than half a century to anywhere from five to fifteen thousand men who cluster in the mornings at a crossroads called Namidabashi (Bridge of Tears) in hopes of getting work. The day-labor market, along with gambling and prostitution, is run by Japan's organized crime syndicates, the yakuza. Working as a day laborer himself, Fowler kept a diary of his experiences. He also talked with day laborers and local merchants, union leaders and bureaucrats, gangsters and missionaries. The resulting oral histories, juxtaposed with Fowler's narrative and diary entries, bring to life a community on the margins of contemporary Japan. Located near a former outcaste neighborhood, on what was once a public execution ground, San'ya shows a hidden face of Japan and contradicts the common assumption of economic and social homogeneity. Fowler argues that differences in ethnicity and class, normally suppressed in mainstream Japanese society, are conspicuous in San'ya and similar communities. San'ya's largely middle-aged, male day-laborer population contains many individuals displaced by Japan's economic success, including migrants from village communities, castoffs from restructuring industries, and foreign workers from Korea and China. The neighborhood and its inhabitants serve as an economic buffer zone―they are the last to feel the effects of a boom and the first to feel a recession. They come alive in this book, telling urgent stories that personify such abstractions as the costs of modernization and the meaning of physical labor in postindustrial society.
229 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 6, 2019
“nobody wants to know ya when you’re down and out”
Japan is often presented as perhaps the most monolithic society in the world and perhaps Japan presents itself that way too. But it really isn’t. Various journalists, historians and anthropologists have pointed that out over the years, so I’m hardly the first to say so. There are various ethnic minorities, there are the famed burakumin---something akin to India’s Untouchables---and there are other social and economic groups that don’t fit the “salaryman”, middle class picture so often given. In this brilliantly done work, Fowler describes life in a small area of Tokyo inhabited by large numbers of transient or rootless workers who form a labor pool exploited by contractors who want temporary help paid by the day. Alcoholism is rife, conditions (compared to the rest of Japanese society) are tough, and the usual politesse and reserve are absent. These Japanese are more individualistic and more insecure, perhaps the modern version of poor ronin---those outside social norms. After a rocky start, Fowler, fluent in Japanese, was able to penetrate this down-at-heel worker’s society, shunned by the rest of Tokyo. He lived in the tiny rooms, he ate at local ‘greasy chopsticks’ and drank in the local dives, talking with everybody and anybody who would chat. He came to know San’ya as perhaps no other Westerner ever has. He depicts this world via numerous conversations he had with men from all over Japan, through descriptions of his life as he moved in and out of the area over several years, and through descriptions of how he actually worked on construction labor gangs for a short time one summer. For me this is anthropology at its best. If you want a web of complex theories, shot through with jargon adapted from vaguely similar French sociological terms, forget this book. If you want to know what it was like back in 1989-1991, when Fowler was there, if you want a fantastically rich description of a part of Japan seldom seen or heard from, this is your book.
Fowler not only studied the community, he became a part of it as much as he could. The resulting work brings to mind Oscar Lewis’ work on Mexico---if shorter---to Laurence Wylie’s “Village in the Vaucluse”, “Akenfield” by Ronald Blythe or Elizabeth Warnock Fernea’s “A Street in Marrakech”. The style is somewhat different, but the effect is the same. Fowler creates a portrait of a time and place that is not easily forgotten.
Japan is often presented as perhaps the most monolithic society in the world and perhaps Japan presents itself that way too. But it really isn’t. Various journalists, historians and anthropologists have pointed that out over the years, so I’m hardly the first to say so. There are various ethnic minorities, there are the famed burakumin---something akin to India’s Untouchables---and there are other social and economic groups that don’t fit the “salaryman”, middle class picture so often given. In this brilliantly done work, Fowler describes life in a small area of Tokyo inhabited by large numbers of transient or rootless workers who form a labor pool exploited by contractors who want temporary help paid by the day. Alcoholism is rife, conditions (compared to the rest of Japanese society) are tough, and the usual politesse and reserve are absent. These Japanese are more individualistic and more insecure, perhaps the modern version of poor ronin---those outside social norms. After a rocky start, Fowler, fluent in Japanese, was able to penetrate this down-at-heel worker’s society, shunned by the rest of Tokyo. He lived in the tiny rooms, he ate at local ‘greasy chopsticks’ and drank in the local dives, talking with everybody and anybody who would chat. He came to know San’ya as perhaps no other Westerner ever has. He depicts this world via numerous conversations he had with men from all over Japan, through descriptions of his life as he moved in and out of the area over several years, and through descriptions of how he actually worked on construction labor gangs for a short time one summer. For me this is anthropology at its best. If you want a web of complex theories, shot through with jargon adapted from vaguely similar French sociological terms, forget this book. If you want to know what it was like back in 1989-1991, when Fowler was there, if you want a fantastically rich description of a part of Japan seldom seen or heard from, this is your book.
Fowler not only studied the community, he became a part of it as much as he could. The resulting work brings to mind Oscar Lewis’ work on Mexico---if shorter---to Laurence Wylie’s “Village in the Vaucluse”, “Akenfield” by Ronald Blythe or Elizabeth Warnock Fernea’s “A Street in Marrakech”. The style is somewhat different, but the effect is the same. Fowler creates a portrait of a time and place that is not easily forgotten.
January 18, 2010
A look at day laborers in Tokyo during the height of Japan's economic boom from 1989 to 1991. The best part is the "Day Laborers" section of the "Lives" chapter, in which the author presents short monologues of what life is like for many of the men in San'ya. The pieces on labor union activities are dull and the second half of the author's account of working as a day laborer is strange, but overall this is a worthwhile, if slow, read. It is depressing to see that there were so many downtrodden people even in Japan's best days, but it's also depressing to read that these transients with limited skills and education still got paid more per day than I do.
February 7, 2014
This book is an ethnographic study of a particular region of Tokyo where day laborers live and search for work, usually living hand-to-mouth. While this book doesn't have a narrative flow, it captures the characters and day to day life of those living in this region. Fowler, who stumbles upon this part of Tokyo by accident, become interested in the life of people there after an incident where he gets punched in the face. After that, he spends time learning about the trials and tribulations of this community and captures it all to share with us. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about a little known group in Japan.
January 16, 2015
Fowler writes about his entry into San'ya, a ghetto area of Tokyo, largely unknown to Japanese society, much less the rest of the world. One of several areas that are "built" around day-laborers, the men who actually constructed much of modern Japan, while being exploited and then abandoned when they are too broken down to use anymore. Fowler not only observed, but also worked as a day laborer for six months. Written about the late 1980's, early 1990's, it is, by his own account, quite out of date, but illuminates a Japan little known and little cared for.
April 14, 2009
A well-researched, yet very personal insight into the world of the people behind Japan's economic growth, the day-labourers in the quarter of Sanya. This book seems to have been out for some years, but with the current economic crisis taking its toll on Japan, it is as actual as ever. Also provides the reader with an insider view of Japanese society. Worth the read!
March 21, 2015
Newly moved to this part of Tokyo.....couldn't put it down. Can really appreciate the streets I ride around now....
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews