The Japanese Restaurant: Tasting the New Exotic in Australia (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)

This book explores the growth and operations of the Japanese restaurant in Australia since the early 2000s from perspectives of both restaurant workers and consumers. Through first-hand testimonies, collected from chefs, restaurateurs, gourmets and casual diners, it demonstrates how Japanese restaurants act as cultural hubs, connecting a diverse community of migrants, Australian citizens and international tourists, while also disseminating knowledge of Japanese culinary cultures. The ethnographic evidence presented challenges the colonialist and essentialist understandings of the ‘exotic’ and ‘Japaneseness’ as the ‘inferior other’ to the West. In so doing, the book highlights the complex manifestations of cross-cultural desires, translating practices and the performative racial-ethnic mimesis of Japanese ethnicity. Featuring critical investigation into the fixed notions of otherness, race, ethnicity and authenticity, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Japanese society and culture, particularly Japanese food culture. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Bibliography Chapter 1: Mapping Out the Japanese Restaurant ‘Japanese Gastro-Cool’ on the Rise The New Exotic: The Japanese Restaurant as an ‘Exotic Genre’ The Fold as the New Exotic Exoticisms and Modernities Food and Food Practices: Meaning-Making, Sensing and Sense-Making Decoding Japan’s Culinary System More Room for Ethnicities?: The Presence/Absence of Australia’s National Cuisine Scope and Limitations Overview of Chapters Notes Bibliography Chapter 2: Folding Restaurateurs’ Cross-Cultural Desires into the New Exotic Introduction Jun from KANARI-YA: Opening Out, Keeping Inside Chris from IZAYAKAYA ICHI: Folding ‘Whiteness’ into Japanese Gastro-Cool Keiko from CHIKA: Moving from the ‘Virtual’ to the ‘Actual’ Kanta from MARU: ‘From Head to Hands and Heart’ Ryo from RURŌ TENTEN: Making Non-sense of Japaneseness Notes Bibliography Chapter 3: Eating Out and Tasting the New Exotic Introduction Consuming Japanese Gastro-Cool ‘It’s the Whole Package’: Dining Out in the Japanese Restaurant as Entertainment Dining Out in the Japanese Restaurant as ‘High-Class’ Cosmopolitan Consumption Claiming Authenticity, Desiring the Consumable Consumable Authenticity Authenticity Impossible Notes Bibliography Chapter 4: Cross-Cultural Translation: Decoding the Japanese Restaurant Introduction Two Perspectives on Translation Shoji from KOHARU: The Ethics and Ethos of a Homolingual Address ‘Good Copy’ and ‘Bad Copy’: Translating Sushi into Mass Exoticisms Im-perfectly Translated, Positively Transgressive Crossing and Double-Crossing between ‘Mass’ and ‘High-Class’ Atsushi from YAKITORI ROKU Hiro from MENYA Sachi from YAKINIKU HOUSE JŪJŪ Kyōiku : A Way to Read, Sense and Make Sense of Foreign Culinary Texts Notes Bibliography Chapter 5: The Exotic Genre’s Formula: The Supply and Demand of Japanese Ethnicity Introduction ‘ Irasshaimase ’ at Renewed RURŌ TENTEN: Mimetic Utterances through ‘Asian’ Bodies Steve from MUSASHI: Who ‘Makes Believe’? Takeshi from AOI-TORI: A Hyphenated Ethnicity The Supply and Demand of Japanese Ethnicity in and beyond Capitalism Notes Bibliography Conclusion Bibliography Index