‘License to drink’: White-collar female workers and Japan’s urban night space

Abstract

This article examines the contradictory processes that have given women a greater access to Japan’s urban night space as the increasingly flexible work environment offered them white-collar employment opportunities and enhanced women’s economic resources, which in turn generated shifts in commercial practices to de-problematize drinking for women and a proliferation of diverse drinking venues. This study contends that these changes, which are largely commercially driven and not necessarily reflecting a stronger social acceptance of women drinking in public late at night by the broader Japanese society, nonetheless legitimize women’s place in the once male-dominated urban night space by recognizing women’s contributions to the night-time economy as consumers, hence affirming also the importance of white-collar work for women as a valid realm.