In modern history, Japan has undergone an enormous transformation that created a huge middle-class with its own popular culture. This thematic section of the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture examines the way in which popular culture emerged from an early authoritarian control over culture and production. Four articles examine the ways in which forms of popular culture have evolved as the marketplace has adopted more liberal regulation. The place of gender and gender roles is particularly salient in understanding this transformation. This transformation is described using examples from both men’s and women’s fashion magazines (by Martyn David Smith and Satoshi Ota), the use of televised laughter (by David Humphrey) and the evolution of the place of women in Takarazuka theatre (by Toshiko Irie).
