ABSTRACT
The "under-the-counter" system in communist Romania functioned under similar rules: The products were not available and the store shelves were obviously empty, just as the dance club obediently closes its doors one hour after midnight, but a select group of people had the means to obtain the goods hidden "under the counter". Loneliness and the search for companionship are features that define the customers of other bars in Osaka, but the creation of an exclusively "midnight community" at Bardis was facilitated by several elements combined. According to Tada (1980), within Japanese leisure, alcohol and a collective setting are what sets an individual free, and it is the kind of unlimited yet futile freedom that can be observed at Bardis. Participants find an ephemeral happiness through the lack of responsibility for one's actions and behavior, lack of peer judgment, lack of stress and lack of concern about what the others might think.
