Izakaya
The Japanese pub or izakaya ( Japanese 居酒屋 ) is the most popular type of catering establishment in Japan .
The name is made up of i (to sit) and sakaya ( sake shop) and means something like "sake shop to sit down".
Izakayas always have a cook and offer a selection of dishes or even an extensive menu , as the Japanese usually always eat at least one little something (so-called tsumami ) when they drink alcohol. Often there is such a small thing as a service called o-tōshi ( お 通 し ) usually in advance after you have sat down at a table. In some Japanese pubs, people are even reluctant to see guests only drinking or there is a minimum consumption for food.
This is probably one of the reasons why you cannot stand in Japanese pubs, but always sit (in contrast to yatai ). The seat is assigned to you by the waitress. As a small group or in smaller pubs, you can either sit at the counter , as in the west at normal-height tables on chairs or on traditional cushions on tatami mats at low tables. In many pubs you have to take off your shoes , put them in special compartments and walk around barefoot in slippers provided by the pub.
These common izakayas have been around in Japan since ancient times. Up until the 1970s, however, these were mostly smaller establishments, sometimes only the size of a living room on the ground floor of the operator's house, which were often run by the chef alone and were frequented almost exclusively by male business people after work.
Sun battery
There is also another type of izakaya-like establishment, called Sunakku ( ス ナ ッ ク , from English snack ), which is now almost exclusively run by female employees and a boss who is called "Mama" by the guests. You can almost always find karaoke systems here, with which older and / or wealthy Japanese people sing karaoke, be it Japanese hits (also called enka ) or older and modern pop music. The Sunakku is the link between the usual catering business in Germany and the Japanese Mizu Shōbai ( 水 商 売 , German "water trade"), which covers everything from hostess bars to prostitution.
Chains
That changed suddenly in the 1980s, when big chains like Tsubohachi or Shirokiya began to open large pubs all over Japan, all of which are equipped with identical menus and offer much more space, especially for large groups (20 - 40 people) . These big bars now have space for the Japanese parties , at which an entire company department or an entire sports group of a university with several dozen members usually celebrates. With these big pubs women also started going to Japanese pubs.
Today there are dozens of pub chains, often with several hundred branches across the country, but they hardly differ from one another. The small traditional pubs reacted by renting their pubs closed by the hour or day to party groups.
Western pubs
Japanese pubs are different from the western pubs that are also found in the larger cities. The English-Irish pub in particular has caught on. However, the traditional pub system also has an impact here: In pubs there is also a large menu, their own kitchen and you are usually assigned a table by the waiter (but “may” also stand). If you really just want to drink, in Japan you can go to an elegant shot bar .