The Rise of the Ikumen Market

―A Study of the Commercialisation of Japan’s New Fathers and their Identities―

February 12, 2015 6:30 PM (finished)


Florian Kohlbacher

(Associate Professor, International Business School Suzhou (IBSS), Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), Suzhou, China)

Date/Time February 12, 2015 6:30 PM
Location Room 549 5th floor, Akamon Sogo Kenkyuto Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo  [map]
Abstract While fathers have traditionally held a distant position in the Japanese family, the last few years have seen changes in the image of fathers in Japanese society. The Japanese public increasingly recognizes the importance of paternal involvement in everyday family life, and more and more men are making efforts to actively engage in childcare. This is illustrated through ikumen, a popular term used in Japan to describe fathers who are actively involved in child-rearing. Ikumen has received widespread media attention as well as support from the Japanese government, which hopes to use these ‘nurturing fathers’ to counter declining birth rates. This presentation deals with the economic side of ikumen. starting with an outline of the emerging ikumen market and the commercialisation of Japan’s new fathers and their identities. We triangulate quantitative and qualitative data gathered from secondary data analysis, expert interviews, a content analysis of the magazine FQ Japan as well as ethnographic research. Using actor-network theory, we examine a recent surge in ikumen goods, business initiatives that aim to bind involved fathers as customers and the economic potential of the ikumen market. Our results show that the ikumen market and the commercialisation of fatherhood cannot only be traced back to business-side innovation but to a larger extent to processes of transformation in Japanese society. Aiming to turn nurturing fathers into customers, businesses themselves are becoming participants in this ongoing example of social change, and partake in shaping a symbiotic relationship between the ikumen market and the ikumen phenomenon.
Bio Dr. Florian Kohlbacher is an associate professor of marketing and innovation in the International Business School Suzhou (IBSS) at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) in Suzhou, PR China. He is also an adjunct fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS) at Temple University Japan Campus. Before joining IBSS, Florian was a senior research fellow and head of the Business & Economics Section at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) Tokyo, Japan, where he has lived for 11 years.