“The Japanese solution”: Imagery of Japan as a social peace model versus the Spanish labour unrest

Abstract

This paper studies the imagery of Japan in the Asturias of the eighties and nineties with a special focus on the evolution of the relations of production resulting of the application of social and labour techniques of Japanese inspiration. In this regard, the country image of Japan in Spain is examined across different national and local media, and specific labour conflicts are looked into in greater detail, especially that of the Suzuki factory in Gijón. This paper suggests that the Orientalist discourse presents the Japanese "economic miracle" as a product of its cultural inclination towards consensus, thus contributing to naturalize approaches that called for unions to replace class struggle by cooperation among producers.