Forum - View topicMeet Kenshi Hirokane, author of Kosaku Shima series
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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http://smart.businessweekly.com.tw/forum/201003/paradigm/
On Thursday night (3/11), Kenshi Hirokane, author of Kosaku Shima series, will have a talk with Fei-Peng Ho, Founder of Business Weekly and Vice Chairman of Cite Publishing, and Frank Mao, Senior Vice President of Paradigm Asset Management. The title of the talk will be "Finding Taiwan's Kosaku Shima," which will be focused on managing workplace relationships and financial investments. The ultimate goal is becoming a successful businessman like Kosaku Shima, who has been promoted to the position of the president of the company where he has been working for 25 years on May 28, 2008. Before the talk, Hirokane has received an interview by Georgina Fang on 101 Summit, a program inviting success examples of various business practices. The program will be aired on Saturday (3/13) at 23:00 (GMT+8) and will also be available at North America. Some pictures of the TV recording can be found here. 
EDIT: Typo corrected. Last edited by dormcat on Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:32 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Can anyone tell me why "salaryman manga" are not popular at all in North America? As far as I know, half of Japanese businessmen have read Kosaku Shima series, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan use the English edition as a gift to foreign visitors to demonstrate Japanese workplace culture. And as you can see in the post above, Hirokane meets business leaders and is interviewed on TV. Yet the series is basically unknown in North America (there's no rating here, so less than four votes have been casted).
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Hmm, nope, never heard of it
Yes I'm familiar with salaryman manga and the concept, but, like the majority of fans in the U.S., no particular title in the genre has ever even caught my eye. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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That's kind of expected.  I just don't understand why American manga fans have no interest in salaryman manga at all.
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2330 Location: Online Terminal |
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I have to imagine the reason being mainly cultural. White collar culture in the West isn't as rigid or defined as in Japan.
The Office would be the closest thing we have to a salaryman; series explore if you want. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10470 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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I can think of two reasons. I'm just theorizing here, but: 1) Salaryman manga are geared towards an older demographic, and North Americans in that age group, for the most part, don't read comic books. We're still a good 10 to 20 years away from seeing a 34+ demographic that is more open to the idea that comic books (or graphic novels) can be for adults. That's assuming the popularity of anime and manga continues. 2) Corporate culture and employment in North America is very different. The percentage of North Americans that are unhappily married to their jobs (meaning they really dread their jobs, but can't / won't change jobs and don't foresee any opportunity to change jobs... ever), is much lower than in Japan. Certainly there are many people like that in North America, but in Japan it's almost the norm. In otherwords, North Americans don't have as big of a need for "employment related escapism." Additionally, North Americans seem to prefer comedic escapism (like the aforementioned The Office) to the "I'm going to reform the system and teach my employer how things should be done" genre of escapism that dominates Japanese salaryman manga. That type of escapism is generally considered immature in North America, and wouldn't appeal to an adult North American ("I feel like a loser for reading this.") "I'll show them" fantasies are usually left behind at the end of high school (or in a trench-coat + pipe-bomb ladden outburst). -t |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I'd say this is the major reason. In both Japan and Taiwan there have been quite a few congressmen openly admitted being manga fans (mostly salaryman or socio-political manga; we have "Rozen Aso," however), but I haven't heard any US senator or congressman has done the same.
While lifetime employment system is falling apart and job-switching is more frequent in Japan today compared to, say, 25 years ago at the peak of the bubble economy, most full-time jobs are still employed before one graduates from college (the Japanese for "being employed" is naitei 内定, which literally means "reserved"), and the rate is still far far below that of North Americans. Few companies have positions for people age 35+ with previous work experiences. That said, many Japanese salarymen may not be happy with the current job/position but are not capable to quit.
And that's why Dilbert exists. When being asked whether readers have provided him materials for corporate politics, Hirokane said very few readers have ever done so. This is just the opposite of Scott Adams, where readers around the world send real life events suitable for Dilbert.
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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One little tidbit I am curious though, assuming lots of salarymen and women read salarymen manga, doesn't that contradict the purpose of escapism, which entertainment is often geared for? I was in the Navy so I had first hand knowledge of what sailors liked to do and watch during their free time. I don't think it's surprising to know that military, war themed movies were among the least common genre for sailors to pick on a movie night at sea. Some examples of big hits with them was Clerks, anything with Adam Sandler and other popular comedies at the time. I think I must have watched Happy Gilmore 5 times while at sea.
Maybe the culture is different between Asians and Westerners married to their jobs. Perhaps in Japan working men and women like to see different perceptions reflecting their own lives that they don't experience in reality land, but in North America where we emphasize play is separate from work, the type of entertainment we like is similarly entirely separated from it. That could be a reason why salaryman manga is not popular in North America. According to my theory, white-collar career types would avoid it like the plague. For the rest of us, it's not a really exciting, flashy genre that would warrant much interest. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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What I saw it seven years ago (and still applies): Americans: job < career < life Japanese (and most East Asians): job = career = life |
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