Youth’s consumption and use of space is tied into the formation of their identity which assists them in participation of social interaction. Privately owned public spaces such as malls, parks, and plazas are open for all people to use. As mentioned in the introduction, they are “sites of social interaction... in which personal identities are constructed through unmediated human contact” (Németh, 2009, as cited in Mitchell, 2003a, p. 131). The openness of such spaces makes the expression and observation of identity an attractive, hallmark element of privately owned public space. This is especially true for youth. Youth live within “a culture in which consumption is used to define social identities through the marking and masking of difference [and] the identification of self and other” (Deutsch & Theodorou, 230). Youth consumption is a characteristic to differentiate or assimilate youth. For example, youth who smoke cigarettes or hang out in the center of a park may be considered different from those who read books or hang out on the outskirts of a park. Additionally, the ways in which youth express identity is more status-based and experimental compared to adults. Youth are “more willing than adults, to experiment with their identities, no matter what boundaries of identity, may appear to constrain them” (Miles et al., 83). This may manifest in the form of having different appearances or being more willing to enter a space dominated by a different group of people compared to adults. Youth’s increased risk regarding identity expression may be because “consumption in marking social status is exaggerated in youth culture because status power is the only power held by adolescents, who have neither economic nor political power” (Deutsch & Theodorou, 2010). The importance that youth have for consumption as a marker of status justifies their identity risks because it can denote status relations inside and outside of groups. However, youth consumption, specifically of space, is not always welcomed in privately owned public spaces.  

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The mainstream perception of youth’s consumption of privately owned public space as a threat to the image of or others in public is different from what is seen in Miyashita Park. Although public spaces like parks and malls “serve as the material location where social interactions and public activities of all members of the public occur” (Németh, 2009), many public opinions feel that youth should be excluded from these places. Youth are seen as a threat because “‘fear of crime’ in the streets has made the city dweller nervous of those exhibiting behaviors seen as different from the mainstream. Because of the visibility of youth in the streets, they are constantly under barrage of these regulatory practices. Excluded, positioned as intruders, young people’s use of streets as a space for expressing their own culture is misunderstood by many adults” (Malone, 2002). Youth’s constant occupation of public spaces is seen as a threat because their culture usually goes against the mainstream practices of being an upstanding citizen who is mature enough to never transgress rules. The nature of youth usually makes this an unrealistic expectation. However, Miyashita Park is a youth-dominated space where they thrive. Although the space is a balance of open public use and consumption intended for all citizens, youth have turned it into their own. Miyashita’s combination of safety and diversity makes it a place “of retreat... away from the adult gaze, where teenagers can pull back and withdraw from the adult world to be with their own peers… where young people are on display and out and about to see and to be seen by others” (Matthews et al., 2000). In Miyashita, young people are not a threat to the public, but instead they are actors on a stage performing their identities to one another. One study revealed that young people gravitate to such spaces “to interact with other young people, and to feel a sense of possibility and choice, which they cannot successfully enact in other spaces” (Vanderbeck & Johnson, 2000). This is precisely why young people have transformed Miyashita Park into a hub for youth interaction and identity expression.  

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Youth’s use of Miyashita as a place of positive interaction with others and expression of themselves has become a defining characteristic of the space. Their behaviors and interactions with one another have transformed normal lawns, ledges, and walls into spaces for youth consumption. Their use of Miyashita is so consistent and prevalent that they have formed general unwritten rules that define the space as youth dominated. The combination of youth’s creation of unwritten rules and interaction with social and aesthetic spaces defines Miyashita as the place that maximizes youth sociality and identity expression more than any other area in Shibuya.