2004 Annual Meeting - Abstract

Kaitenzushi and konbini: Anonymous Convenience in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Abstract of a paper proposed by

Theodore C. Bestor
Department of Anthropology
Harvard University
bestor@wjh.harvard.edu

During the years of Japan’s economic bubble, Japanese food consumption reached new heights of sophistication: fine imported foodstuffs, renewed interest in Japanese regional cuisines, and an incipient “Slow Food” movement. The economic hard times of the 1990s have generated or accentuated other trends, including the boom in kaitenzushi (sometimes translated as “conveyor-belt sushi”) which soared in popularity among consumers during the late 1990s; and the massive expansion of konbini (franchised chains of “convenience stores” such as Lawson’s, AM-PM, and 7-Eleven ) whose stock in-trade are ready-to-eat meals, box lunches, and highly processed snack foods, and which have in many urban areas have all but replaced traditional small-scale food sellers.

Both kaitenzushi restaurants and konbini reflect the trends toward mechanization, standardization, and anonymous convenience that have transformed the Japanese retail world more generally. Based on research in Japan, including fieldwork in wholesale markets and data collected on retail consumption during the 1990s and more recently, in this paper I will ethnographically analyze both kaitenzushi and konbini as almost ultimate examples of the process Jack Goody refers to as the “industrialization of cuisine” in which all aspects of food production, distribution, and consumption, as well as the very foodstuffs themselves and the daily schedules of those who consume it are organized around the logic of industrial capitalism.

Kaitenzushi is served on a conveyor belt; chefs make up small batches of different kinds of sushi and place them on a moving track and customers take one plate of this or one plate of that (usually two pieces of sushi, as in a traditional serving); each plate is priced (and the total is later calculated) according to the color or shape of the plate itself; at the end of a meal, an employee simply sorts and then counts the different kinds of plates the customer has stacked up to arrive at a total. Kaitenzushi restaurants make a point of their low prices – 100 yen per serving or 150, or 200 – for basic offerings, with higher prices for servings that make the rounds on fancier plates.

Kaitenzushi was invented in the 1950s and gained a reputation (deservedly so, in many cases) as quick, cheap, and often tasteless. Such restaurants were places to catch a bite before getting on a train. Ambiance did not come around the belt.
In the recession of the 1990s, however, kaitenzushi became popular (even trendy) and its image (and quality) improved. Its new found popularity (and the idea—oxymoronic to some—of gourmet kaitenzushi) reflects the impact of the recession on consumer spending habits and the wider availability of inexpensive imported seafood (thanks to revolutions in distribution channels and wholesale markets). In addition, the technology of the fast-food industry has been applied to sushi: careful portion control; scanners that can read barcodes or micro-chips embedded in each plate; and low-paid staff who simply assemble sushi rather than master it. Other restaurants rely on “sushi robots,” impressive arrays of mechanical devices that can cook rice, squeeze it into blocks, and plop precut pieces of fish on top, all in the back room where the conveyor belt slips out of sight. Still others depend on pre-made sushi, often frozen, sometimes prepared overseas and shipped to Japan.

Top-of-the-line kaitenzushi restaurants now have comfortable family atmospheres, nice lighting, and friendly chefs behind the counter to fill any order that a customer hasn’t seen on the conveyor belt. Some Japanese commentators, however, attribute at least part of the popularity of kaitenzushi to a growing preference among young Japanese to avoid interaction with others which makes the anonymity of conveyor-belt preferable to the sociability of an interactive chef. The Automat has been re-born.