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California Studies in Food and Culture #36
Coffee Life in Japan (California Studies in Food and Culture Book 36)
This fascinating book—part ethnography, part memoir—traces Japan’s vibrant café society over one hundred and thirty years. Merry White traces Japan’s coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day, as uniquely Japanese ways with coffee surface in Europe and America. White’s book takes up themes as diverse as gender, privacy, perfectionism, and urbanism. She shows how coffee and coffee spaces have been central to the formation of Japanese notions about the uses of public space, social change, modernity, and pleasure. White describes how the café in Japan, from its start in 1888, has been a place to encounter new ideas and experiments in thought, behavior, sexuality , dress, and taste. It is where a person can be socially, artistically, or philosophically engaged or politically vocal. It is also, importantly, an urban oasis, where one can be private in public.
238 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 1, 2012
For some reason one tends to associate Japan with a tea culture and not coffee. Oh the misleading power of assumption. For those who shared this reviewer's ignorance of Japanese coffee culture, this could be an interesting work to peruse.
Written in an academic style but accessible to a tenacious reader, this book takes a look at the café society in Japan in the past 130 years and how coffee has helped to shape Japanese society in different ways. It might seem far-fetched yet coffee has played a much greater part in 'modern-day' Japan than you could imagine.
As befitting an academic book, the author has clearly done their homework and a multitude of reference sources and notations are provided for the reader's own reference. After a comprehensive introduction to this relatively 'obscure' subject and an interesting overview about Japan's cafés, the next chapter is the curiously-titled 'Modernity and the Passion Factory.' where jazz, modernity, empowerment of women and cultural clashes all enter the mix.
Japan embraced coffee, made its own coffee emperors and started to make a contemporary Japanese coffee and, of course, an entire coffee culture and counter culture at the same time. Rituals were formed, rules developed, traditions strengthened and no doubt Unchangeable things slowly changed. All due to the humble coffee bean and its brew.
Certainly if you have the patience and the interest, this book will certainly give you a lot of food for thought, a lot of new knowledge and maybe a whole new perceptive to Japanese culture as a whole. The book is low on fripperies like colour photographs and infographics but high on information. A book you might need to focus on - which is no bad thing - rather than casually flip through. A book you might want to sit down in a comfy chair with, a cup of tea, oops, coffee at your side and a bit of time…
An interesting book, not everyone's cup of tea (oops, you don't tend to refer to everyone's cup of coffee) perhaps but worthy of a read if you are interested in society changes, history, philosophy, gastronomy or just piling in bits of knowledge to the old grey matter for good measure.
Coffee: Life in Japan, written by Merry White and published by University of California Press. ISBN 9780520271159, 243 pages. Typical price: GBP16. YYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
Written in an academic style but accessible to a tenacious reader, this book takes a look at the café society in Japan in the past 130 years and how coffee has helped to shape Japanese society in different ways. It might seem far-fetched yet coffee has played a much greater part in 'modern-day' Japan than you could imagine.
As befitting an academic book, the author has clearly done their homework and a multitude of reference sources and notations are provided for the reader's own reference. After a comprehensive introduction to this relatively 'obscure' subject and an interesting overview about Japan's cafés, the next chapter is the curiously-titled 'Modernity and the Passion Factory.' where jazz, modernity, empowerment of women and cultural clashes all enter the mix.
Japan embraced coffee, made its own coffee emperors and started to make a contemporary Japanese coffee and, of course, an entire coffee culture and counter culture at the same time. Rituals were formed, rules developed, traditions strengthened and no doubt Unchangeable things slowly changed. All due to the humble coffee bean and its brew.
Certainly if you have the patience and the interest, this book will certainly give you a lot of food for thought, a lot of new knowledge and maybe a whole new perceptive to Japanese culture as a whole. The book is low on fripperies like colour photographs and infographics but high on information. A book you might need to focus on - which is no bad thing - rather than casually flip through. A book you might want to sit down in a comfy chair with, a cup of tea, oops, coffee at your side and a bit of time…
An interesting book, not everyone's cup of tea (oops, you don't tend to refer to everyone's cup of coffee) perhaps but worthy of a read if you are interested in society changes, history, philosophy, gastronomy or just piling in bits of knowledge to the old grey matter for good measure.
Coffee: Life in Japan, written by Merry White and published by University of California Press. ISBN 9780520271159, 243 pages. Typical price: GBP16. YYYY.
// This review appeared in YUM.fi and is reproduced here in full with permission of YUM.fi. YUM.fi celebrates the worldwide diversity of food and drink, as presented through the humble book. Whether you call it a cookery book, cook book, recipe book or something else (in the language of your choice) YUM will provide you with news and reviews of the latest books on the marketplace. //
August 20, 2016
I went into this with the expectation of an ethnographic text on coffee and cafes in Japan, and that's pretty much what I got. It is dry and academic at times, but interesting nonetheless. Full disclosure: I found this book in the citations of the Wikipedia article for coffee jelly, and I bought it because I really like Japanese cafes, because they don't necessarily serve espresso (bleh!). It was really interesting to read it and kind of compare it mentally with past experiences in Japan, and also it depresses me because there are no good coffee shops where I live...*sob*
The historical review of cafes and "coffeeways" in Japan was fascinating--spanning from the 1600s, with introduction of coffee from the Dutch and Portuguese, to the opening of the first cafes in the 1880s, the beginning of the Brazilian export trade, and the beautiful thing that is pour-over coffee, which apparently is a trend now in the U.S. It helps to have some familiarity with Japanese history when reading this book, though. I definitely feel that I got more out of it than if I had no prior knowledge, because the author does not go too deeply into events mentioned in passing; the book is fairly short, and it is not the author's intent to write a historical analysis.
There is a short annotated list of cafes after the last chapter, but only for Tokyo and Kyoto. No Osaka ones! I will have to look for at least one of the Kyoto ones then, it's closer to Osaka. It also has an index and a bibliography, both of which are helpful if interested in further reading.
Going to go make coffee jelly now, with gelatin though, because I ran out of kanten (agar).
The historical review of cafes and "coffeeways" in Japan was fascinating--spanning from the 1600s, with introduction of coffee from the Dutch and Portuguese, to the opening of the first cafes in the 1880s, the beginning of the Brazilian export trade, and the beautiful thing that is pour-over coffee, which apparently is a trend now in the U.S. It helps to have some familiarity with Japanese history when reading this book, though. I definitely feel that I got more out of it than if I had no prior knowledge, because the author does not go too deeply into events mentioned in passing; the book is fairly short, and it is not the author's intent to write a historical analysis.
There is a short annotated list of cafes after the last chapter, but only for Tokyo and Kyoto. No Osaka ones! I will have to look for at least one of the Kyoto ones then, it's closer to Osaka. It also has an index and a bibliography, both of which are helpful if interested in further reading.
Going to go make coffee jelly now, with gelatin though, because I ran out of kanten (agar).
January 3, 2018
A fun and fascinating dive into the world of Japanese culture through the lens of coffee preparation and drinking. Japan is so heavily associate with tea (fairly enough), but this book explores its societal cousin. The author writes as a cultural anthropologist, so it can feel a little repetitive, due to the nature of how proofs are explained in anthropology versus popular science literature. That being said, each section is its own little vignette into different aspects of coffee culture as it developed in Japan. If you like coffee, or the idea of owning a little coffee shop with dedicated regulars, you'd enjoy this book.
May 1, 2026
This book is the evidence you need to not stick to buying books based on popularity and recommendations, but just because you want to. I stumbled upon Coffee Life in Japan by Merry White, at a second-hand book store, and I was intrigued. I bought it and started reading it,and how glad I am that I did that. It is an anthropological, ethnographical text that delves into coffee; origins, trades, urban culture, modernity, politics, heterotopic spaces and so much more.
I wanted to highlight the aspects of this book I found most interesting.
“Cafes became miniature democracies, as they were for the most part socially unclassed”
This literature delves into how cafes and modernity are interrelated, and cafes operate as a “third space” a very popular term nowadays. However, in this case, it is a place where one can hold political opinions, discuss and exchange them, without the risk of radicalisation as you are in a public sphere. Let me elaborate through an example, early feminist leaders in Japan were “upper-middle-class women of cosmopolitan backgrounds who found a natural home in the new coffee and pastry shop”...”The Law of Public Assembly and Association of 1890 forbade women`s presence in public political meetings…. (cafes) because using their home might conflate their radical activities with their domestic responsibilities, and even the most ardent of change seekers did not want to put their families at risk” In such, the cafe was positioned as a place where people with different ideas could meet, to exchange and create. It offered them a space within society with low bureaucracies and restrictions, that existed neutrally (to some extent), where their presence there is not questioned, or interrogated, but somehow, all their intellectual curiosities and social needs were welcomed and reciprocated.
This relates to their use of Foucault's definition of heterotopic spaces, to classify cafes, as a place with many uses, that are representative of the social and economic conditions in the community, as well as, a place for knowledge to be exchanged, and societally inclusive. The characterization of cafes as such is very appropriate, as it materialized in Feminist, Anarchist, and Marxist movements in Japan, as well as welcomed the new age of Japanese Jazz when it first arrived. Furthermore, another aspect of cafes is the behavioral expectation one has of said cafegoer, that is slim to none. A welcoming component of these cafes is the lack of restrictions, or difficult to attain standards of being. The emergence of a space with barely any restrictions, but rather an inviting aspect, and glimmers of hope for change, was very enlightening. Especially when also analysing the idea of being alone with people, which is something I believe cafes have perfected.
“The cafe offers society in a place of isolation, or isolation when society is too demanding”
This is another notion that the book delves into, really showing the extent to which a space such as a cafe, can provide one with the solace of being private with their thoughts, in an open, public sphere. Which simultaneously allows one to still be influenced by the community surrounding them, whether that be the overall community, or few other people sharing the same space, that is an interesting phenomenon. The author later on also strengthens this claim by correlating this with modernity;
“By the turn of the 20th century, being in a cafe in Japan was an act of outright modernity. So you entered a cafe as an act of personal choice to be with and observe modern people. It was a ludic space, a space of freeplay or a space where you were free to define yourself”.
I believe this is especially relevant in times of heightened political and social tensions. The frameworks, ideas and slogans that are too radicalized for the bourgeoisie, but too basic for the proletariat reside so perfectly on a table between a few people having a cup of coffee. It is innocent but charged, and if utilised correctly could be very influential and moving. These thoughts can jump between notebooks, speeches, and rebuttals between the people enjoying their coffee, in this heterotopic space fuelled with potential.
This all really shows how the emergence of cafes as spaces, the aesthetic experience behind curated spaces, the rise of social and political movements, heterotopic classifications, democracy and modernity are actually all very interrelated.
I wanted to highlight the aspects of this book I found most interesting.
“Cafes became miniature democracies, as they were for the most part socially unclassed”
This literature delves into how cafes and modernity are interrelated, and cafes operate as a “third space” a very popular term nowadays. However, in this case, it is a place where one can hold political opinions, discuss and exchange them, without the risk of radicalisation as you are in a public sphere. Let me elaborate through an example, early feminist leaders in Japan were “upper-middle-class women of cosmopolitan backgrounds who found a natural home in the new coffee and pastry shop”...”The Law of Public Assembly and Association of 1890 forbade women`s presence in public political meetings…. (cafes) because using their home might conflate their radical activities with their domestic responsibilities, and even the most ardent of change seekers did not want to put their families at risk” In such, the cafe was positioned as a place where people with different ideas could meet, to exchange and create. It offered them a space within society with low bureaucracies and restrictions, that existed neutrally (to some extent), where their presence there is not questioned, or interrogated, but somehow, all their intellectual curiosities and social needs were welcomed and reciprocated.
This relates to their use of Foucault's definition of heterotopic spaces, to classify cafes, as a place with many uses, that are representative of the social and economic conditions in the community, as well as, a place for knowledge to be exchanged, and societally inclusive. The characterization of cafes as such is very appropriate, as it materialized in Feminist, Anarchist, and Marxist movements in Japan, as well as welcomed the new age of Japanese Jazz when it first arrived. Furthermore, another aspect of cafes is the behavioral expectation one has of said cafegoer, that is slim to none. A welcoming component of these cafes is the lack of restrictions, or difficult to attain standards of being. The emergence of a space with barely any restrictions, but rather an inviting aspect, and glimmers of hope for change, was very enlightening. Especially when also analysing the idea of being alone with people, which is something I believe cafes have perfected.
“The cafe offers society in a place of isolation, or isolation when society is too demanding”
This is another notion that the book delves into, really showing the extent to which a space such as a cafe, can provide one with the solace of being private with their thoughts, in an open, public sphere. Which simultaneously allows one to still be influenced by the community surrounding them, whether that be the overall community, or few other people sharing the same space, that is an interesting phenomenon. The author later on also strengthens this claim by correlating this with modernity;
“By the turn of the 20th century, being in a cafe in Japan was an act of outright modernity. So you entered a cafe as an act of personal choice to be with and observe modern people. It was a ludic space, a space of freeplay or a space where you were free to define yourself”.
I believe this is especially relevant in times of heightened political and social tensions. The frameworks, ideas and slogans that are too radicalized for the bourgeoisie, but too basic for the proletariat reside so perfectly on a table between a few people having a cup of coffee. It is innocent but charged, and if utilised correctly could be very influential and moving. These thoughts can jump between notebooks, speeches, and rebuttals between the people enjoying their coffee, in this heterotopic space fuelled with potential.
This all really shows how the emergence of cafes as spaces, the aesthetic experience behind curated spaces, the rise of social and political movements, heterotopic classifications, democracy and modernity are actually all very interrelated.
September 30, 2016
This was a super interesting book. Japan is one of the world's major coffee consumers and has a pretty unique history and culture of coffee.
The author does a good job in covering both this historical and social aspects that make Japan's coffee scene unique as well as how coffee unseated tea as the caffeinated beverage of choice in Japan.
I do think it could have stood to be a little expanded. The book mentions Starbucks quite often but doesn't spend much time on how western chains have fit into Japan's existing coffee landscape.
The second complaint I have is that this book is clearly written by someone who has spent a lot of time in Kyoto. Most cages mentioned are from Kyoto, Tokyo does get a fair bit of time but there is very little from other parts of Japan.
I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Japanese culture and history or the culture of coffee.
The author does a good job in covering both this historical and social aspects that make Japan's coffee scene unique as well as how coffee unseated tea as the caffeinated beverage of choice in Japan.
I do think it could have stood to be a little expanded. The book mentions Starbucks quite often but doesn't spend much time on how western chains have fit into Japan's existing coffee landscape.
The second complaint I have is that this book is clearly written by someone who has spent a lot of time in Kyoto. Most cages mentioned are from Kyoto, Tokyo does get a fair bit of time but there is very little from other parts of Japan.
I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Japanese culture and history or the culture of coffee.
July 7, 2013
Academic style of writing. Even though I found the topic very interesting, and learned a lot about the coffee history and culture in Japan, I had to work hard to get through the book. I don't think this is the for the casual reader. It was worth the read for me, as it brought back memories of numerous Japanese who meticulously made cups of coffee for me, the most fascinating method was the siphon method. I will look for more interesting cafes in Japan on future visits!
January 13, 2024
read this for thesis research, studying the consumption of coffee in different cultures, went in not knowing much about Japanese coffee culture. I found it fascinating, a bit dense at times, but I think White’s template for analysis of consumption and production will be useful for me.
September 24, 2022
一本研究咖啡如何进入日本当代生活的小书。从东京的第一件咖啡店「可否茶馆」（由一名台湾男子郑永庆创办），到巴西-日本贸易带来的大量咖啡豆，使价格大幅降低，咖啡最终变成了大众饮品；以及咖啡如何塑造公共空间和调和日本的现代性。很多有趣的小知识。缺点当然就是并不深入。我很期待分析日本和巴西关系：移民、种植业、拓殖（日本劳工去到巴西很大程度上填补了废奴之后的劳动力短缺，但为何是咖啡？），这里不太令人满意。第四章对于职人master文化也颇有洞见。总之，很有意思。
March 3, 2018
Going to Japan in the spring. Kyoto! Besides matcha the coffee culture in Japan is amazing 😉
September 2, 2020
Wonderfully evocative and wide-ranging look at cafe culture and history in Japan. Anthropological, celebratory and passionate.
July 20, 2022
Fun read. I work in a cafe. White was able to accurately point out cafe culture stuff that I've been vaguely aware of. A big compliment.
November 3, 2023
Good. And, thank goodness for excellent local libraries.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 20, 2013
A great little read about Japan's history with coffee.
A bit breezy and light with it's cultural ideas, it still presents some interesting insights into the role coffee and cafes play in Japan.
It also describes some fascinating cafes, which will be useful to anyone who loves coffee and is heading to Japan.
A bit breezy and light with it's cultural ideas, it still presents some interesting insights into the role coffee and cafes play in Japan.
It also describes some fascinating cafes, which will be useful to anyone who loves coffee and is heading to Japan.
August 12, 2015
Dense and fascinating anthropological study of coffee culture in Japan, and how the various locations/cafes to consume coffee is formed by the context and needs of the surrounding society. Have implications far beyond either Japan or coffee. I'm still thinking about it regularly, three years after first reading it. Highly recommended!
March 20, 2013
Great book on coffee in Japan!
July 26, 2015
Enjoyed the topic, but found the writing style a bit of a slog.
October 26, 2012
I thought it was interesting and made me think about my relationship to cafes.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews