White-collar comedy and Toho’s ‘Wholesome Color’ in Japan’s era of high economic growth

Abstract

ABSTRACT Throughout Japan’s era of high economic growth (1952–1971), hundreds of films were produced featuring the salaryman, or male white-collar worker. While each major studio produced films concerning this figure, Toho Studios was best known for their salaryman comedies. This article examines Toho’s popular Company President series (1956-1970), which consists of thirty-three films released across fourteen years. Redefining the concept of ‘comic timing,’ I argue that the series’ comedic vocabulary is organized around historical temporalities and a time-based perception of white-collar work’s specificity. I then connect textual readings of the series to Toho’s own identity crafted in the studio’s promotional magazine and film periodicals. By highlighting its management style and technological superiority, Toho crafted a self-image as a white-collar workplace that is coextensive with the brightness of their workplace comedies. The studio’s emphasis in films and corporate identity on wholesomeness, brightness, and rationalism are placed in tension with Toho’s earlier history of labour relations. Toho and white-collar comedies act as an important example of an ‘employee culture’ that was elaborated in the era of high economic growth, positing the salaryman as a paradigmatic postwar subject.