Abstract
This paper is based on the long-term participant observation (over 3 years) in the work of Bicycle Messengers in Tokyo. The main purpose of this paper is to present an outline of the work and the culture of Bicycle Messengers and to give a detailed description of their labor process. Then, the interaction between the culture and the hard laobr (the messenger culture provides the definition of labor, and the experience of every day physical labor provides the material basis of their culture) is considered. At the end of this paper, research points to the ongoing trend of the difficulty young messengers have in obtaining the opportunity to be the totally skilled messenger, as the work process is broken into parts, and personal skills are now replaced with the computer systems.
