Book Review: Romit Dasgupta, Re-reading the Salaryman in Japan: Crafting Masculinities

Abstract

It is easy to see why Romit Dasgupta’s PhD thesis was awarded the Asian Studies Association of Australia’s President’s Award and DK Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis in 2006. Adapted into Re-reading the Salaryman in Japan: Crafting Masculinties, this latest addition to the Routledge/Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) East Asia Series is intimate, engaging, and especially timely amidst piped interest in corporate culture and masculinity in Japan. Coming from an intersection of Japanese Studies and Gender Studies, the monograph focuses on the markers and contradictions of being a ‘corporate soldier’, a salaryman – generally male, white-collar office workers’ – situated within the climate of postbubble Japan.