Reminders Project Asian Photographers Grant Finalist #2: Shiho Fukada

In this article, we highlight the second finalist for the inaugural Reminders Project Asian Photographers Grant. We take a look at Japanese photographer Shiho Fukada’s project Japan’s Disposable Workers: Lost in Global Unemployment, in which she tackles the complex issue of unemployment in today’s globalised economy.

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Japan’s Disposable Workers: Lost in Global Unemployment

Shiho Fukada / Panos Pictures, Japan

One billion people, or 30% of the world’s workforce, are jobless. The standard job, with a 40-hour work week, medical benefits and a pension at age 65, is on the wane. Disposable workers – who can be fired easily without a social safety net – are becoming the norm. Globalization has created unbalanced, unfair, and unsustainable labour conditions that affect us all, not just developing countries.

My project is to document and report on the lives of Japanese workers who have found themselves “disposable” in the recent economic turmoil. My goal is to put a human face on modern disposable workers, and what it means to be part of a disposable labour force in the world’s third-largest economy as it struggles to remain globally competitive.

Disposable workers are a recent phenomenon in Japan. For decades, Japanese companies cultivated a system of lifetime employment. Change came with the recession and massive layoffs of the 1990s and deregulation on temporary labourers. As a result, the number of temporary low-paid workers has surged to a third of Japan’s work force of 67 million. This Increase of disposable workers has affected people from different walks of life, from blue-collar workers to salary men of all ages, and casts a shadow on national psyche, exacerbating isolation and suicide.

Much of the world used to look at Japan’s economy with admiration and jealousy; now they wonder what went wrong — and what lessons can be learned. Once proud of their large middle class, the small gap between rich and poor, lifetime employment and social security, the Japanese now see homeless people flooding Tokyo, with part-time workers sleeping at internet cafés because they cannot afford rent, and the young and educated seeking careers in nightclubs. I believe Japan is a compelling place to show how economic transformations affects ordinary people and communities.

Words from our Jury Panel:

“The lives of the homeless is often covered by documentaries, but I was drawn very much to Shiho’s work, which closes the distance between them and the people who love them. The unavoidable situations in which they had no choice but to be homeless, and often having to leave their homes so as not to trouble their family, makes a powerful statement that points a finger at a society that brought about this reality. Shiho’s strong construction and careful coverage enables us to feel this.” – Yuko Yamaji, Curator at Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts

“The pictures of Shiho Fukada are strong and extraordinary as they focus on the social problems in one of the richest countries in the world. Japan is facing substantial economical problems over the last years and especially the elderly people have to cope with problems they were not used too. Shiho’s photos show the pain and shame of a whole generation In a very discreet but visually strong manner.” – Dirk Claus, Photoeditor Asia, Stern Magazine

Shiho Fukada

I’m a Japanese photographer based in Beijing, China. I have a BA in English literature and worked in the fashion and advertising industries in New York before becoming a photojournalist in 2004. After working in New York for 5 years and travelling the world, I decided to look at where I came from for inspiration, the place I ignored for a decade. I moved to Beijing, China in 2008 and returned to Japan in 2010. It’s there that I found one of my current projects, documenting the changing dynamics in Asian economic powers- China, the new second biggest economy in the world, and Japan, the third replaced by China last year – my new and old homes. I’d like to continue documenting the rise of China and how its power affects Japan and the rest of Asia.

Website: www.shihofukada.com
Shiho Fukada is represented by Panos Pictures. [www.panos.co.uk]

Invisible Photographer Asia (IPA) is the official media partner of the Reminders Project Asian Photographers Grant.

The winner of the grant will be announced in November during the 7^th Angkor Photo Festival, held from November 19-26, 2011, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. During the festival, there will also be a special showcase of the finalists’ projects.

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