Introduction

A Starbucks cafe in Tokyo’s fancy Ginza district, situated in a side alley, is more popular with the locals coming for a sip, a bite or date than with tourists seeking isles of consumerist familiarity. While there is a rich body of literature on the cultural and economic history of coffee in the Old and New Worlds, very few studies examine the dramatic societal and cultural changes brought about by the expansion of the coffee culture in many parts of Asia. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines the cultural aspects of coffee in Japan and traces the mechanism of its cultural incorporation back to seventeenth-century Europe. It examines coffee as regime of taste and coffee-drinking as a practice linking taste to the realm of social class. The book explores recent trends in the evolution of the urban space and outlines Japan’s particularities in coffee-drinking.