Who owns a cuisine? The grassroots politics of Japanese food in Europe

Abstract

Culinary borrowings are so common as to seem trivial, and yet they are consequential for many of the actors concerned. People’s livelihoods, professional status, and social identity may be tied to their stake in the defining boundaries of culinary cultures. When dominant groups or powerful actors such as multinational corporate chains adopt or reinvent the cuisine of weaker and marginal groups, it may be regarded as cultural appropriation. However, the definition of the situation becomes more complicated when multiple weak and marginal actors compete over ownership of a cuisine. This article discusses how Japanese and other Asian migrant actors participate in grassroots culinary politics surrounding definitions and uses of Japanese cuisine in the context of a Japanese food boom in Europe. It shows how the “borrowed power” of one migrant group may threaten the status and even livelihoods of the foundational stakeholders in a culinary field.

Keywords:

• Japanese cuisine
• culinary globalization
• cultural appropriation
• culinary politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Japanese rice is only used at the most expensive restaurants. Short-grain rice grown in Italy or Spain is also used.

2 This is an ethnographic project based on qualitative interviewing and field visits to restaurants. James Farrer and Chuanfei Wang conducted interviews and visited restaurants on multiple separate field trips to Europe from 2015 to 2019. The choice of Paris, Rome, and Berlin as the focus of this article was based on the large scale of the Japanese restaurant scenes and the availability of research contacts in these cities. Fieldnotes were written up and interviews transcribed, with the data analyzed jointly and generalizations confirmed in conversations with key informants. Both researchers speak Chinese and Japanese, which were the main languages of interviewing for this article. Farrer also conducted interviews in German. All the quotes and case studies here are from their interviews and observations. Paid student research assistants also gathered additional data that were not used for this report, though this additional data also substantiated the findings here. We also conversed with customers, food writers, and scholars in each context. Other cities in Europe were also visited but not covered in this article. The data are shared as part of a larger project of global scope (see Farrer et al 2019 and www.global-japanese-cuisine.org). Because restaurant owners spoke in their public roles, they agreed verbally to using their real names in interviews. However, in cases where we feel the contents might embarrass the speaker, we have anonymized the quotes.

3 Interview by James Farrer and Chuanfei Wang in February 2017.

4 Interview by Chuanfei Wang in August 2018.

5 Fieldwork by James Farrer in July 2018 and Chuanfei Wang in August 2018.

6 Fieldwork visits by James Farrer and Chuanfei Wang in February 2017, James Farrer in July 2018 and Chuanfei Wang in August 2018.

7 Interview by James Farrer and Chuanfei Wang in February 2017.

8 Interviews by James Farrer and Chuanfei Wang in February 2017.

9 Interview by James Farrer and Chuanfei Wang in October 2017.

10 Fieldwork by James Farrer and Chuanfei Wang in October 2017; also http://www.ansa.it/canale_terraegusto/notizie/dolce_e_salato/2018/05/15/un-po-giappo-un-po-emiliana-la-cucina-seasons-di-barbieri_5c6a8ed0-8dff-4558-866c-5cb1384d0b73.html. Lastly accessed on March 29, 2020.

11 See https://www.darumasushi.com/daruma-seasons/. Lastly accessed on March 29, 2020.

12 See https://zumarestaurant.com/#about. Lastly accessed on March 29, 2020.

13 Fieldwork by James Farrer in July 2019.

14 For example, there is an executive Japanese chef at the prominent Ao Izakaya in Paris, but the owner is Chinese and most staff are Southeast Asians.

15 Interview by James Farrer in July 2019.

16 We interviewed Japanese chefs working for Asian migrant restaurant owners in Paris, Rome, and Berlin.

17 Interview by James Farrer in August 2018; Fieldwork by James Farrer in October 2017.

18 Interview by James Farrer in August 2018.

19 Fieldwork by James Farrer and Chuanfei Wang in February 2017.

20 Interviews by James Farrer in Düsseldorf August 2018 and Chuanfei Wang in London August 2017. Nintei Nihon Restaurant Association website is no longer functioning but the magazine is available at Eat Tokyo locations.

21 Interview by James Farrer August 2008; see also https://www.theworlds50best.com/The-List-2017/41-50/Restaurant-Tim-Raue.html. Lastly accessed on March 29, 2020.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Sophia University Special Grant for Research in Priority Areas “Grassroots Culinary Globalization: Sociological and Historical Study of the Japanese Food Boom”

Notes on contributors

James Farrer

James Farrer is a Professor of Sociology and Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. His research has focused on the contact zones of global cities, including ethnographic studies of sexuality, nightlife, migration, and food. His ongoing projects are studies of Tokyo urban foodways (www.nishiogiology.org) and the globalization of Japanese cuisine (www.global-japanese-cuisine.org).

Chuanfei Wang

Chuanfei Wang earned her Ph.D. in Global Studies from Sophia University. She is currently a post-doctoral Research Fellow at the same University and adjunct faculty member teaching sociology at Sophia University, Hosei University, and Japan Women’s University in Tokyo. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on the Japanese wine industry, the globalization of Japanese culinary culture, and Japanese wine tourism.