From Slaves to Agents: Pentecostal Ethic and Precarious Labor among Brazilian Migrants in Toyota, Japan
Toyota, a global icon of Japanese industrial achievement, has long depended on an army of unskilled dispatch workers in its home territory of Toyota City, Japan. Little known is the large presence of Japanese Brazilian workers in the city and their Pentecostal churches that have thrived amid the pos...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2019]
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In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Year: 2019, Volume: 87, Issue: 3, Pages: 791–823 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Japan
/ Brazilians
/ Immigrants
/ Evangelical movement
/ Precariat
/ Protestantism
/ Economic ethics
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RelBib Classification: | CH Christianity and Society KBM Asia KBR Latin America KDG Free church |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | Toyota, a global icon of Japanese industrial achievement, has long depended on an army of unskilled dispatch workers in its home territory of Toyota City, Japan. Little known is the large presence of Japanese Brazilian workers in the city and their Pentecostal churches that have thrived amid the postmigration experiences of economic precarity and racial discrimination. This article sheds light on the ramifications of Toyota-ist capitalism for those who support its operation from the bottom. It elucidates how the deregulation of the labor market, state-sanctioned diasporic return, and a Christian ethic of self-discipline all converge to generate mixed outcomes. The aim is to critically examine the conceptual reification of “Christianity” and “neoliberalism” by foregrounding the blurred line between ethical and economic activities. Specifically, the article illuminates how Pentecostal technologies of the self mediate an aspired transformation from the “slaves” under the Toyota-ist labor regime to the agents in the entrepreneurial economy. |
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ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfz036 |