Reshaping omotenashi at the workplace: foreign workers’ employment and training in Japanese restaurants

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This article aims to elaborate on how foreign workers in Japan’s restaurants embody skills and knowledge on omotenashi, a concept of hospitality rooted in Japanese culture, and to discuss various factors influencing the process. The qualitative data were collected from in-depth interviews with fifteen non-Japanese workers and observations in dozens of restaurants across Japan, between March 2018 and March 2020. This study argues that employment and training in restaurants contribute to the embodiment of omotenashi among foreign workers, while allowing them to adapt and reshape the existing forms of omotenashi through the use of cultural skills. Overall, this study suggests that omotenashi is a form of socially constructed practice in Japan’s service industry that is transferable to a different cultural context through skill training and practice. The findings invite broader discussions on how culture-related skills are practised and socially constructed.