Figure 1.--Atletic styled tops and shorts appeared in the 1970s and were very popular in the 1980s.
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Figure 1.--Atletic styled tops and shorts appeared in the 1970s and were very popular in the 1980s. |
Japanese elmentary-age boys have traditionally worn short pants with a sharp
age divide. Elementary boys usually wore short pants of varying styles depending on
the time period. As soon as they graduated from elementary school at about 12 years of age
they immediately syopped wearing short pants. Only in the 1990s have older boys begun
wearing shorts, but only casual shorts--never dressy ones. Since the 1950s, Japanese boys
have worn short, rather trim fitting shorts. Longer shorts began to become popular
in the mid-1990s, although shorter shorts are still commionly worn with school
uniforms.
The basic chronological trends are discussed on the main Japanese pants page.
Japanese observers are not sure why the style of short pants worn by boys changed in the mid-1990s from the short, trim style to the longer baggy style. HBC Japanese contributors
have offered some speculations about the change.
Japanese elementary school boys have traditiinally worn short pants.
The various Japanese terms for different styles of shorts are:
Gurhka shorts: Gurka shorts are knee-length short pants loosely based on the
shorts worn by British Gurka sholdiers recruited in Nepal.
Gobatake: Baggy, knee to below the knee.
Hanzubon: This literally means, half-pants. They are traditional
snug, short, short pants (usually implies young boys' shorts
only).
Pantsu: Pants said alone mean underwear, i.e., the way the British use the word.)
Shotto pantsu: I believe that the english term short pants usully
refers to women's shorts although I'd want to check with a native speaker.
Shottsu: The English term shorts can be used to cover all these
varieties and is the generic term for any shorts worn by men.
Tanpan: This means literally mean short pants. "Tan" suggests very short.
Tanpatsu, for example, means very short hair. I think that tanpan is used for any
extremely brief shorts whether worn by boys or men (i.e., good old
traditional rugby shorts) and has an aura of sports or athletics about it,
while hanzubon means conventional traditional short boys' shorts.
Zubon: Means trousers (American pants), thus han (Japanese
word for half) zubon for proper short pants as explained above.
Japanese short pants came in a variety of styles.
Jean short pants (but not longs until the 1980s) were very common;
these were styled like jeans except there were virtuallu no legs, typically
inseams were only a centimeter or two. Jean shorts normally had two big pockets in the
back. Jean shorts were considered play shorts and commonly worn in the summer.
I believe the most
common style for the non-denim were single pocket in back (right side),
lined (at least in the heavier weights), and with an elastic waist in the
back but with belt loops. Another popular style had the belts actually part
of the shorts. Occiasionally, you would see a little loop in back which some
thought very charming.
There were also the casual, jogging style
shorts with the rounded, open legs and the elastic waist bands. This was the
same style that prevailed in the States, although it lasted here considerably
longer. Some boys wore them to school, but they were really casual wear.
Japanese short pants were made in several different materials, depending on the
type of shorts and season. Denim was a popular material for summer sorts.
In the winter, heavier fabrics (flannel, wool and wool/polyester blends,
and corduroy) were widespread. A variety of light fabrics (cotton or cotton/polyester
blend) were popular for summer shorts. Some dressier summer styles appear to have
been made of linen or linen blends, but I'm not sure.
Japanese short pants came in many colors, depebding on the type of shorts, material, and age group the shorts were made for.
Jean shorts commonly came in several different colors. Dark blue and white
seemd the most popular, but there were also light blue and tan or brown.
Light colors such as beige and light blue were popular for casual summer shorts. Younger
boys might wear brighter colored shorts.
The popularity of short pants in Japan appears, to some extent
to be regional. Japan while not very wide, extends several hundred miles moth to south. This means that there are consideranle climatic
differences between the s\norther and southern islands, much as the climate in the United States varies considerably between Maine/Vermont and Floida/Massachusetts.
The most northerly of the main Japanese islands is Hokkaido. Hokkaido has a very severe winter and a rather coolish summer. (Americans should think Vermont.) One Japanese contributor informs ua that short pants were never prevalent there, even in the summer.
It would certainly be too cold in the winter. A HBC contributor
who went to college there said Kushiro people say, "Yes, we have four seasons. Winter, winter, spring, and winter." Another Japanese source
reports that he once visited Kushiro, a
city in the northeast of Hokkaido. He was there in early May 1990. It was raw and uncomfortably chilly, although not really cold. All the boys were in long pants except one decked out in the classic Japanese short-shorts and knee socks. He was talking to his parents and he
apparently was from Yokohama.)
Honshu is the biggest of the Japanese islands and stretches from quite far north to quite far south (roughly Massachusetts to Georgia). The far north of Honshu also has very severe winters, and I think shorts wearing has always been confined to the summer. Sendai, the biggest city on Honshu north of Tokyo (not all the way to the north -- about halfway between Tokyo and the northern tip) , is rather cosmopolitan and sophisticated. As noted, boys there wore shorts from early spring to late fall and a few boys wore them
straight through the winter.
From Tokyo on south, short pants appaer to be worn year-round and universal, except in some rural areas.
One Japanese source speculates that the short shorts style will live on as a
uniform style, since Japanese uniforms typically change very slowly. But
they are likely to disappear altogether for any other form of dress
(already we're pretty close to that), unless for some reason American
and/or French/Italian boys go back to dressing that way. Very unlikely,
perhaps, but who would have predicted in 1970 that by 1980 the vast
majority of American boys would dress casually in very short athletic
shorts and tube socks? Who would have predicted in 1910 that by 1930 the
vast majority of European boys would have bare knees?
Japanese boys seldom wear suits. This is not just a modern development. American and European boys now wear suits much less in the past, although most have a suit or at least a blazer and dress pants for church or formal occassions. Special school ceremonies such as the first day of school and graduation were especially important events. This is less common in Japan.
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