Nihonmachi: The Consumption of Japantown, San Francisco

Abstract

Studying geographical ethnic market places like China towns, Little Italy, or Japan town can give us unique insight into material artifacts, cultural symbols, popular culture, and cultural context within which such retail setting thrive. Such an analysis can provide us an understanding of how ethnic groups maintain their cultural identity within the majority culture. The present study uses ethnography to thickly describe’ (Geertz, 1973), the cultural context unique to the retail settings of Japantown in San Francisco. We hope this investigation into ethnic Japanese culture as manifested in the retail settings of Japan town will help marketers create a framework in which businesses would have a greater understanding of their ethnic customers and, even, in some ways, preserve the culture and traditions of that ethnic group.