Consolidating the Collar Line: The Professionalization of Engineering and Social Stratification in Modern Japan

Abstract

AbstractHistorians have extensively explored conflicts and reconciliation between labor and management, but have hardly considered how class hierarchy took shape and persisted. This article explores the birth of class hierarchy through the lens of the Tokyo Worker School. While education bureaucrats created this school as a training ground for skilled workers, the school's educators helped their students join white-collar positions and avoid the stigma against manual labor. By tracing this process, I explain how the aspirations of educators and students alike consolidated class hierarchy and explore why the collar line persisted despite the ascent of hitherto under-valued professions, such as engineering.