As I surf on the internet lately, I notice this particular book comes up in quite a number of blogs and forums. Its name (in my personal literal translation) is The Exploited Youth – the motorbike messenger has witnessed! and is a social analysis written by a post graduate student at the University of Tokyo, who took a year off and worked as motorbike messenger.
What is written there is the system and the structure of how the youth who has decided and committed to earn profit from their hobbies become drugged into work, which is in another word, an antithesis to all the structure that can naturally emerge in the industries supported by the idea of “Love comes around while doing things you like”.
For instance, most of the youngsters coming into the motorbike business initially do so because of their passion for Harley and BigScooter. But as they work with the senior staffs, their passion gradually shifts to skinnier ones that are usually regarded as tacky in terms of hobby. The author named this the “renewal of taste due to labor”, and I believe this can be applied to so many other kinds of occupation. A designer I once worked with converted from and Mac follower to that of Windows and I was watching the process right next to him all the time.
It’s probably a universal phenomenon too. I heard somewhere that a similar book writing about the working class sold off really well in the States and other books elsewhere.
Then, what kind of characteristics can be seen in Japanese youth? I can’t put my thoughts together right now, so I think I’ll take more time on this topic.
By the way, chapter 3 of Charmy Nurse M is updated today. Perhaps you can see an aspect of youth life in comics like this.
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