From Slaves to Agents: Pentecostal Ethic and Precarious Labor among Brazilian Migrants in Toyota, Japan

Abstract

Toyota, a global icon of Japanese industrial achievement, has long de- pended on an army of unskilled dispatch workers in its home territory of Toyota City, Japan. Little known is the large presence of Japanese Brazilian workers in the city and their Pentecostal churches that have thrived amid the postmigration experiences of economic precarity and racial discrim- ination. This article sheds light on the ramifications of Toyota-ist capit- alism for those who support its operation from the bottom. It elucidates how the deregulation of the labor market, state-sanctioned diasporic return, and a Christian ethic of self-discipline all converge to generate mixed outcomes. The aim is to critically examine the conceptual reifica- tion of “Christianity” and “neoliberalism” by foregrounding the blurred line between ethical and economic activities. Specifically, the article il- luminates how Pentecostal technologies of the self mediate an aspired transformation from the “slaves” under the Toyota-ist labor regime to the agents in the entrepreneurial economy.