Age Harassment

Age Harassment (エイジハラスメント) is a 2015 Japanese TV drama series focusing on harassment in the modern Japanese workplace. It is based on the novel Age Harassment by Uchidate Makiko. It is produced by TV Asahi.

Storyline

Yoshii Emiri (played by Emi Takei) is an attractive, intelligent university graduate from a rural town in Hokkaido, who has come to work in Tokyo. Her family has failed in their business, and because of this, she gave up her dream of going to the US to earn an MBA and has had to work hard to put herself through university. She attempts to join a large Japanese trading company's graduate program. She succeeds, but is surprised when she is assigned a position to the general affairs department in the section that deals with cleaning and maintenance. She even has to wear a uniform, while the men do not. However, the company is going through a cultural change where harassment in its various forms in the company are no longer being tolerated. This includes age harassment, sexual and "power harassment" (workplace bullying).[1] Yoshi is not the typical quiet Japanese girl, she is prone to speaking her mind, sometimes when she possibly shouldn't. However, because of this she often speaks up and brings to attention various workplace issues that need to be dealt with. Her own manager (played by Inamori Izumi) sees her as a threat, though begins to respect her abilities. Because of this, some of her office workers respect her, while others see her as disruptive. Other women resent her because the male colleagues like her.

In order to survive, Yoshi has to navigate challenges of sexist management, older female management who see her as a threat, management policies, age discrimination, and friction with her fellow staff. She starts to fall for a manager from another section, Hoshina Akihiko (played by Koizumi Kotaro), not realising he is in fact in a secret relationship with her own manager, who discovers the relationship.

Apart from focusing on the drama associated with Yoshi specifically, the series addresses issues in modern Japanese business like work–life balance, paternity leave, including problems associated with the salaryman and office lady work culture.

Cast

References
  1. Yasheng She (2017). Televised feminism and consumable solutions: Japanese feminism through the lens of female oriented workplace dramas (PDF) (Thesis). Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University.


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