2024 年 41 巻 p. 53-73
This paper explores workplace-residence relationships at retail stores in interwar Tokyo (then known as Tokyo City) by examining the specific case of the Ginza-dōri shopping street. Through its discussion, the paper reaches five conclusions. First, the shift toward working and residing in separate locations (shokujū-bunri), instead of working and residing in the same place (shokujū-icchi), had begun prior to the Great Kantō Earthquake but underwent significant changes thereafter. Second, shokujū-bunri—including approaches where people made their dwellings in the suburbs—presented advantages from the standpoint of home life, given the poor living conditions, concerns about health and safety, and high house-rent levels in the area along Ginza-dōri. The third conclusion is that shokujū-bunri was also advantageous in terms of land and building use, as having fewer residents in workplaces gave businesses the space to expand their sales-floor areas and high sales per tsubo (a measure of area equivalent to roughly 3.3 m2) offset the high land prices at the time. On the other hand, the paper also finds that shokujū-icchi enabled stores to stay open for longer hours and had its own advantages on the employment side, evidenced by how employees apparently retained a stronger preference for live-in working arrangements than their store proprietors did. The fifth and final conclusion centers on conceptions of “family”: the “merchant family” ideal, which saw employees living in stores as a “fun,” “lively” arrangement, led many to opt for the shokujū-icchi approach.
