CHOIWARU OYAJI & RI-MAN
From Corporate Slaves to Trendsetters: Evolution of Japan’s Salarymen
When foreigners are asked about Japan, besides geisha and samurai another popular image they hold is that of the prototypical businessman (or in Japanese English, sarari-man). This hard-working vital contributor to the country’s economic engine is seen as being slavishly devoted to his company and living for his job. However, in recent years domestically this image has been turned on its head as salarymen are redefining themselves in new and unexpected ways.
In 2001, a new magazine targeting men in their 40s and 50s called LEON (named after the character in the Luc Besson film The Professional) was launched. In order to introduce the magazine, its editor Ichiro Kishida created a word to describe cool aging male baby boomers: choiwaru oyaji or middle-age men who are a bit bad. (“Choi” means a little, “waru” does bad, and “oyaji” is generally used to describe men who are middle-aged or above.) These men are challenging the staid salaryman image of the past by trading in their monochrome suits for sartorial experimentation. The following year Kishida coined the related term choimote oyaji, or slightly popular middle-age man, and a woman’s magazine later came up with the synonymous expression ade osu, which combines the Chinese characters for charming and man.
Japan’s rich postwar generation is the first one to have the chance to become leaders of the fashion world. For example, last year in Tokyo the New York jeweler Tiffany & Co. opened its first shop dedicated to male customers in an Isetan department store, and a men’s-only branch of the store United Arrows called Darjeeling Days opened in the upscale Roppongi Hills shopping complex (The latter was recently profiled in the New York Times as being “a high-end Japanese men’s wear line that mixes Savile Row tailoring with Ginza hipster wear.”).
As of late the national image of the salaryman has undergone multiple transformations, and another phenomenon is described by the word ri-man. This is a shortened version of sarari-man and allows for a never-ending stable of prefixes to be added to it in order to differentiate between types of salarymen. Asahi.com, the online arm of Asahi Shimbun, created an illustrated ri-man jiten (or salaryman dictionary) in December of last year for the purpose of identifying these various categories. Each week a new type of salaryman is featured, and there have been over 25 versions so far. Readers are encouraged to comment on the existence of such a ri-man in their life as well as answer a poll question relating to the classification, making it an interactive site.
Among the more distinctive profiles are the asagaeri-man, omatsuri-man and wakagaeri-man. The first is the “coming home in the wee hours salaryman” who works so late he misses the last train and has to go out drinking with colleagues or kill time until the trains start running again. In the cartoon, just as he is saying hello to his wife and child he is saying goodbye to start a new day. This is the traditional salaryman whose long hours (whether for work or play) often leave him with little time for his family. The next type is the “always up for a party salaryman” who will make any excuse to celebrate or have fun, prioritizing this over work. Finally, there is the “feel young again salaryman” who seems to change appearances every time one sees him. Perhaps a choiwaru oyaji, he puts great effort into both his appearance and speech to seem young and cool.
Clearly this is a time where the identity of Japan’s salarymen is in a state of flux. Aside from changes in appearance, salarymen are also acting in ways that their predecessors would never have considered. With an increase in corporate scandals, many are becoming whistleblowers despite the fact that this action is likely to lead to not just being fired but being disowned by one’s community. Additionally, some are rebelling against the idea of “service overtime” and even taking it to the courts to demand just compensation for their labor beyond regular company hours. As Japan moves forward, stay tuned to see how its iconic salarymen evolve with the times.
——— Reported by Stacy Smith
