Gender Identity Formation in Childrens Magazines in Japan during the Meiji Era

Japan opened up to the West with the Meiji Restoration, and the government undertook reforms in many areas to build a modern nation-state. With modernization, the concepts of masculinity and femininity were recreated. In this paper, the historical course of the formation of modern masculinity and femininity during Japan’s period of modernization is examined by analyzing editions of Shōnen Sekai’ between 1895 and 1900. We review how classifying and gendering the children as ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ through the stories and articles served to teach children to internalize the images and embrace the concepts of masculinity and femininity promulgated by the magazine.