The space-time compression of Tokyo street drinking

ABSTRACT

In postwar Japan vast black market districts surrounded urban commuter train stations with warrens of small-scale retail, food and alcohol vendors. Most were bulldozed during the period of high economic growth and replaced with modern shopping centers. Only a few of these dense, lively pedestrian alleyways survived into the 21st century, including the one called “Willow Alley” described in this paper. Recently there has been a widespread revival of these vintage yokochō. Still as spaces for drinking and eating, the forced intimacy in these cramped interstitial spaces fosters sociability and association among strangers, but with changes in recent years. One trend is the opening up of windowless doors and walls and the use of the alleyway itself as a space of eating and drinking. Another is their transformation from semi-private male-oriented bars to more welcoming mixed-gender venues. In general, the case study shows how both historical legacies and the spatial organization and scale of public drinking streets influence the forms of sociability and community that are sustained there.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban studies
• alcohol
• leisure
• sociability
• Japan

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Grant No. 16K04099 (Kaken C) and the Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture. I thank Fumiko Kimura for her essential work on this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Some locals claim Willow Alley is named for a tree that once stood there. However, the name is more likely borrowed from other famous prewar nightlife streets in Tokyo and Kyoto. Now there only is a sprig of fake plastic willow branch that marks the entrance to a public toilet.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science [16K04099].

Notes on contributors

James Farrer

James Farrer is Professor of Sociology Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. His research focuses on the contact zones of global cities, including ethnographic studies of sexuality, nightlife, expatriate communities, and urban food cultures. His recent publications include International Migrants in China’s Global City: The New Shanghailanders (Routledge), Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City (with Andrew Field, University of Chicago Press), and Globalization and Asian Cuisines: Transnational Networks and Contact Zones (editor, Palgrave). His ongoing projects investigate community foodways in Tokyo and the spread of Japanese restaurant cuisine across diverse world regions.