| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This study focuses on a comparison of the three most popular sakariba (entertainment districts) in Tokyo of the late 1920s and 1930s to highlight the new role of leisure in everyday life as Japan industrialized and urbanized. The comparison of Asakusa, Ginza and Shinjuku shows that even as Japan became a mass society, leisure practices and patterns became stratified and diversified. This stratification and diversification reflected class, age and cultural tastes. The three sakariba developed distinctive characters and attractions for consumers, raising challenges to mass culture critics' assumption that the rise of mass culture and commodity culture would lead to homogenization of taste and recreational products and a lack of consumer choice.
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