ABSTRACT
What is it like working at a club in Japan, particularly if you are a transnational migrant or a man at a presumably feminine workplace? This chapter highlights the fluidity and multiplicity of workers’ gender roles and ethnic identities by closely examining the discrepancies between the job content and job title as well as ethnic diversity within the presumed singular category of “Korean” through a case study of Korean Club Rose (Kankoku Kurabu Rōzu in Japanese) at the European Village (Yoroppa-mura) in the Minami district of Osaka, Japan.1 This chapter is based upon my participant observation as a hostess in 2000-2001 and is part of my larger ethnographic research on Korean hostesses in Japan (cf. Chung 2004).
