Fast Food and
Intergenerational
Commensality in
Japan: New
Styles and Old
Patterns
By: John W. Traphagan and L. Keith Brown
Major Presentation
• What are the common elements of fast food? Does fast food
have an effect on society?
• When one thinks of “Japanese Fast Food” what foods come to
mind?
Overview
① Usage of fast food establishments in Japan in the way in
which they express, facilitate and strengthen traditional
patterns of intergenerational commensality
② Proliferation of these fast-food establishments as a means
to reflect Japan as a part of a global and modern system as
opposed to Japan becoming “Westernized”
③ Origins—is an establishment foreign or Japanese? Do menus
reflect Japanese cultural patterns?
④ Perceptions of Japanese and non-Japanese establishments
⑤ Are establishments ubiquitous establishments that serve
important needs and tastes of the Japanese within their
own culture
• NOT new or foreign, stand-up, take-out, or ready-made
foods have been seen as meals and snacks
• Oldest fast-food chain, Yoshinoya has existed since 1899, and as of
2002, a global corporation with 92 franchise stores in California!
• Characterizing Fast Food in Japanese:
• Ex1. Perceiving McDonalds as a Japanese company
• Ex2. Perceiving McDonalds as a foreign company
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Strong relationship with chain restaurants
Enforces or expresses gender
Enforces or expresses age
Enforces or expresses culture
Food continues to change in meaning
• Food consumption follows normal Japanese patterns
of eating
• Food sharing pervasive even in the context of fast-food
(McDonalds, Mr. Donut)
• Certain individuals (in a familial setting allowed to have
more than others)
• What about Kaitenzushi?
• Turn towards individual rather than group (?)
• Image transformation:
• McDonalds as a “Japanese company”
• Shina Soba -> Chuka Soba -> Ramen (In Katakana)
Closing Questions
• Based on Table 1: Fast Food Free List of the Conjugal Pairs,
what kinds of things do you notice in terms of gender
relations?
• What kinds of effects on the ie (home) structure does fast
food have on the family relations?
• Based on the menus for a Japanese McDonalds and its
American Counterpart (or other chain such as Yoshinoya), are
they the same? Are they different? What kinds of cultural
capital are gained or loss in the globalization of such
companies? Do they get absorbed by that culture, or are they
representative of the site of its origins?