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Maintaining Cultural Boundaries in Retailing: How Japanese Department Stores Domesticate ‘Things Foreign’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Millie R. Creighton
Millie R. Creighton
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
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Abstract

This essay explores the division between ‘things Japanese’ and ‘things foreign’ in contemporary Japanese life through an analysis of modern retailing. Japanese department stores domesticate ‘foreign things’, including customs, holidays, goods, and people, by creating for these meaning consistent with the existing fabric of Japanese culture. Their role in gift-exchanges, in the adoption of foreign holidays and in establishing special advocacy centers for foreigners reinforces the distinction between ‘Japanese’ and ‘other’ that shapes and affirms Japanese identity (economy, national identity, symbolism, popular culture, gift-exchange, Japan).

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , October 1991 , pp. 675 - 709
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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