Traditional Craft Industries and Their Markets in 21st Century Japan – Social and Economic (Re-)Organisation

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Harald Conrad
• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528675232

This research project investigates the social and economic (re)organisation in traditional craft industries and their markets in 21st century Japan. Despite its rapid development as the third largest industrialised country, Japan has managed to maintain various crafts and craft districts with distinct regional characteristics into the present. While research has cited demand- and supply-side factors for the ‘success’ of Japanese crafts, it remains unclear to what extent these explanations are still relevant today and how the crafts have evolved since the early 1990s. Around the world, the middle classes are showing a growing preference for handmade products, which play an important role in discourses on sustainable production, ethical living, consumer values and authenticity. In the wake of this development, the new Western crafts entrepreneurship has also received academic attention. However, the current reorganisation of existing craft districts is poorly researched. Our analysis of recent changes in Japanese crafts will therefore not only shed light on the specific Japanese dynamics of organising in craft districts, but also contribute to broadening our basic understanding of the structural foundations for a possible revitalisation of communities and regional development through craft production in industrialised countries. In doing so, the project takes an economic sociological approach. In order to identify commonalities and differences in structures, practices, problems and problem-solving mechanisms, three types of contemporary crafts will be compared in three different Japanese craft districts (silk weaving in Kyoto, lacquerware industry in Fukui and resist-dyeing in Kanazawa). Since all three districts are characterized by complex organisational structures involving cooperative division of labour, subcontracting, and distribution networks, they represent ideal locations for studying the dynamics of such organisational fields. To enable a comprehensive comparison, the project focuses in particular on a) the changing social and economic structures of the respective organisational fields, with special attention to the organisation and distribution of risks in collaborative production processes, subcontracting, and distribution, b) the role of expert knowledge and training systems and their respective effects on entry barriers and generational renewal of the organisational field, c) discourses about the relationship between craft and machine production, d) the influence of national craft policies and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants