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.

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