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Theodore
C. Bestor is Professor of Anthropology and Japanese Studies at Harvard
University, and is past president of the American Anthropological
Association’s East Asian Studies Section and the Society for Urban
Anthropology. His many publications include: “Neighborhood Tokyo” (1989),” Doing
Fieldwork in Japan” (co-editor, 2003), and his most recent, “Tsukiji:
The Fish Market at the Center of the World” (2004). His current research
looks at the development of Japanese food culture and his ongoing project
on “Global Sushi” examines the “global reach” of
Japanese seafood markets, their impact on markets and fish industries,
and the popularity of sushi and other types of Japanese foods..
1.
Background
2.
Neighborhood Tokyo: Miyamoto-cho
3.
Tokyo's Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of
the World
—Discovering Tsukiji
4.
Japanese Food Culture: Looking at Sushi as a Japanese
Food and Icon
5.
Issues of Food Safety and Hygiene
6.
Lessons to be Learned from the Field: Linking Kansas
with Japan
7. Concluding
Thoughts
Tokyo's
Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World
—Discovering Tsukiji
L: Then, how did you go from Miyamoto-chô to
Tsukiji?
B: Well--it's a sort of complicated chain
of direction. When I was studying Miyamoto-chô and
interested in the neighborhood and the social glue
that kept it
together, it was clear from that research, the most
important actors in the neighborhood were, by and large,
local business people. Which makes sense--if you've
got a shop, you not only have an interest not just
because they're your neighbors but they're also your
customers. So you are interacting with them in a different
way. And this other neighborhood becomes important
to you for your business as well as for your own personal
satisfaction.
So, I became aware very quickly of the central role
of that the small family businesses played in this
community. But at the time because of the friction
between the U.S. and Japan, one of the big complaints,
one of the big issues, that kept coming up in the press
and the colleges and so forth, was that small family
firms were a trade barrier. That they were part of
this complicated distribution system which allegedly
discriminated against foreign products. Specifically,
U.S. [products].
And, of course, there were resistances to importing
American beef and other American agricultural products.
There were lots of explanations and issues involved
but one of them was always--Japan needs to modernize
its retail sector--get rid of all these small family
businesses, modernize and enable globalization of markets
to be fixed.
And I looked at that and thought, first of
all for Americans to say to Japan—“You've got to
get rid of all these family businesses”—it
would be like if Japanese came to Kansas and said, "Get
rid of the family farm."
You're trampling on very sacred ground of these institutions.
So, first of all, family-owned businesses and companies
are important in Japan. Not only for their economic
role [but also] because of their connections to communities.
Then I said, "Let's look at them in an economic
light." I began getting interested in distribution
systems and I wanted to figure out a way to look at
how small family businesses were in some kind of wholesale/retail
relationship. How did they actually interact? How did
kinship, how did family ties shape their businesses?
How did other community ties shape their businesses.
So, I went back to Tokyo with an idea of looking at
the distribution system in small family firms. But
I very quickly realized when I was doing that research
that it's just too broad a topic. There were too many
firms, too many kinds of businesses. I needed to focus
on something--so I decided to focus on the distribution
of food. Since food is after all something that everybody
is interested in--rich people, poor people--everyone
consumes [food] and [it] is sold everywhere.
But then, food is also too broad a topic--there are
too many kinds of foods, too many kinds of businesses.
So I surveyed different parts of the Japanese business
world to find a place where I could really look at
an integrated set of companies. And to understand the
transactions among them, not just the economic transactions,
but the social ties and social networks as well.
And someone again--the good luck of people
giving me suggestions--someone said, "Oh, you should
go to Tsukiji, the fish market. There are lots of family
businesses there." And of course, it's also a
fish market so [it involved] distribution, wholesale/retail,
and so forth.
I thought that was an interesting idea and
would take a look. I didn't really expect it to become
the focus
of my research. But I was there and interviewing somebody
who was giving me an overview of the history of the
marketplace and suddenly a light bulb went off in the
back of my head and I thought, "Wait a minute,
this is the place to look at this since there are thousands
of businesses.”
L: It's like an epiphany.
B: Exactly. I thought—“Oh my God, how
could I miss this!” For the first time, I suddenly
realized, as I was talking to this guy, that markets
themselves were these incredibly interesting social
institutions that have histories all their own.
So, the more I got into studying Tsukiji, the less
my focus became the family businesses themselves. I'm
still interested in family businesses but more the
overall structure of the marketplace. And that, of
course, also led me to the realization that I was interviewing
people about their businesses in the fish market. And
I had to know something about fish. I had to know something
about the products they were dealing with. Otherwise,
my questions were meaningless. And if I didn't know
the difference between octopus and tuna, it would be
a big problem. Of course, not just knowing the difference
between an octopus and a tuna, but also learning how
tuna is used in some ways in Japanese food culture
and octopus is used in others.
So, I had to learn about the fishing side of things--where
these fish are caught, how they are caught and how
they are handled. But also where they go. Why are the
people buying this kind of fish? So, very quickly where
I thought I was narrowing my topic down, very quickly
it blossomed out into this worldwide trade in fish.
Next: Tokyo's
Tsukiji, cont: Globalization
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