Setting Down the Skewer: Japan’s Brazilian Food Businesses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Drawing from fieldwork conducted from September 2020 to August 2021, this qualitative, interview-based research note explores how Japan’s Brazilian food industry was uniquely affected by the COVID pandemic and the Japanese government’s counter-virus measures. Most Brazilian food establishments in Japan are churrascaria, which include a buffet-style setting and waiters who carve skewered grilled meat directly at patrons’ tables. Given the active discouragement of in-person dining generally and buffet-style specifically by the Japanese government, Brazilian churrascaria had to adjust their operations and menus to meet new dining norms. Moreover, many workers in the Brazilian food industry are immigrants working part time, whose vulnerability was compounded by limited Japanese proficiency and lower socioeconomic statuses. Data derived from interviews with 20 individuals working in Japan’s Brazilian food industry, including owners, chefs, servers, and suppliers, show specifically how this more ‘niche’ industry and its workers were uniquely affected by the pandemic. This research note can therefore serve as an abbreviated case study for future social scientific inquiries that analyze inequality in Japan’s restaurant industry stemming from COVID-19 and the Japanese government’s varied approach to protecting the food industry and its workers.