Abstract The present article considers how the categories of private and public spheres (uchi and soto)—key terms of Japanese social behavior—are constructed through material practices in the home. In response to earlier discussions of uchi and soto that emphasized their stability, the article will explore how, in practice, their distinction is not absolute but relative, and relatively fluid. Based on fieldwork in a Japanese sharehouse, I discuss how residents used personal belongings, signs, and techniques of self-presentation to make claims about the nature of shared space, and what these claims reflected about their understandings of public and private in the more conventional Japanese home.

中文翻译：

---

构建室内公共空间：日本共享屋中的 uchi 和 soto

摘要 本文考虑了私人和公共领域（内和外）的类别——日本社会行为的关键术语——是如何通过家庭中的物质实践来构建的。针对之前对内和索托强调稳定性的讨论，本文将探讨在实践中它们的区别是如何不是绝对的而是相对的，并且是相对流动的。基于在日本共享屋的实地调查，我讨论了居民如何使用个人物品、标志和自我展示技巧来提出共享空间的性质，以及这些声明反映了他们对更传统的公共和私人的理解日本人的家。