Settling in at the Counter: The Production of Gendered Space in Japanese Snack Bars

Snack bars, a popular genre of independent drinking establishments in Japan, are often narrativized as spaces for middle-aged male patrons to consume both alcohol and the affective labor of female owners and staff. Yet increasingly, young women are patronizing snack bars across the country. Certainly, the dominance of middle-aged men at the counter creates a gendered narrative around the snack bar. But young women's increasing and enthusiastic patronage suggests that the gendered quality of the space may not be due to intentional and unchangeable design. Instead, I argue here that the gendered quality of the snack bar develops through sedimented affect co-produced by bar owners and patrons engaging with the objects and bodies in the space. As an intervention into the dominant feminist discourse around young women's marginalization within structural institutions in Japan, I suggest that attending to their affective experiences of non-institutional spaces is vital to constructing a comprehensive understanding of how women navigate Japan's social economy.