After Work

"After Work is the story of "silver backpackers," older Japanese couples who moved to Malaysia in their retirement. Based on 15 months of fieldwork in Kuala Lumpur, author Shiori Shakuto presents an engaging feminist account of how older Japanese women and men renegotiated the gendered values and practices they had cultivated in younger years upon arrival to postcolonial Malaysia. The book investigates moments of difference in the experiences of older women and men to examine patriarchal conversations that dominate ideas about contemporary retirement. The book argues that anxiety around self and belonging in retirement are brought about by the capitalist labor regime and the discourse of successful aging, both of which devaluate non-remunerated activities conducted at home. At a time when the boundaries between work and home are ever more blurred, the book offers a productive way to think beyond the dichotomy of work and life or the so-called "work-life balance." What is needed instead is a re-valuation of key domestic processes - from caring for children to pursuing individual hobbies - so that we can appreciate "life" in its entirety. After Work highlights the ways transnational locations can allow people to creatively enact wellness while showing at the same time how historical, cultural, and racialized complexities entangle with intimate relations in increasingly connected Asian countries. These themes expand readers' understanding of aging and a "good" retirement, gender, migration and the future of work as we know it"--