Paper short abstract:

In Japan's foremost global city, migrant restaurateurs play an outsized role in the creation of social spaces where Japanese and non-Japanese interact. Migrant-run restaurants are enablers and shapers of social interactions, and migrant restaurateurs are key cultural intermediaries.

Paper long abstract:

In Japan's foremost global city, migrant restaurateurs play an outsized role in the creation of social spaces where Japanese and non-Japanese interact. Migrant-run restaurants are enablers and shapers of social interactions, and migrant restaurateurs are key cultural intermediaries. This paper is based on a long-term ethnographic study of independent restaurant owners in Tokyo neighborhood. The focus here is on migrant-owned restaurants and their interactions with patrons. Several factors influence how migrant restaurants work as spaces of social interaction among patrons and management: (1) the scale of the social space, (2) the mix of clientele, (3) the population mix in the surrounding community, (4) the social construction of ethnic, racial and cultural hierarchies, (5) the norms of interaction that are particular to restaurant consumption, (6) the patterns of consumption of alcohol and assorted sociability. All of these factors are important in understanding the particular nature of ethnic food consumption and migrant entrepreneurship in Tokyo.