Contemporary culture of wine consumption in Japan: women’s leading role in creating the market in an asia’s post-industrial context

Abstract

This research focuses on Japan’s culture of western wine consumption, based on historical research and fieldwork conducted from 2012 to 2018. First of all, it provides a brief overview of wine in Japan from an exotic to a familiar beverage, a process of how the culture of wine has been accepted and developed in Japan. This process is understood as the branding or re-making of cultural values associated with wine as a foreign product. Secondly, it examines contemporary wine consumption culture with the highlight of women’s leading role in constructing and shaping the contemporary culture of wine consumption in Japan and shows that women construct a contemporary Japanese culture of wine consumption with their wine connoisseurship as “professional” consumers, making wine culture of tasting rather than simply consuming.