Figure 1.--This family portrait was taken '24.3.3.' We think tht means Mrch 1923. (Sometimes the Japnese used a system based on the emperor's reign.) They dress much as they might bof in the 19th century except for the boys' school caps.

Japan in the 20th century emerged as the most modern country in Asia, undergoing an emense social transformation. Japan was the only country in Asia to industrialize and create a modern economy. The changes in Japanese society are observeable in children's clothing. This was especially the case for boys who were more likely than girls to wear Western clothes. We note Japanese boys in major cities beginning to wear Western-styled clothes after the turn-of-the 20th century. This was promoted because Western styles were adopted as school unifirms. It was not until after World war II, hiwever, that Western dress became widely worn in the countryside. We also see children commonly wearing more stylish clothibg after the War, especially as the economy began to eapidly expand in the 1950s. Even though Japan was occupied by the Americans, European-style clothes became very popular for children in Japan. American styles like jeans were less popular. The short pants Japanese boys wore became destinctive by the 1970s. Beginning in the 1990s, Japanese children began to wear many of the same styles popular in American and Europe. Gradually Japanese children clothes became less destinctive. We have created different chronological periods based more on stylistic changes than the chronological periods we have used fof other countries.

Early-20th Century (1900-45)

The early 20th century was a tumultuous time for still very traditional Japan. The Japanese defeated the Russians in 1905, the first Asian country in centuries to defeat a European colonial power. Japan entered World War I on the allied side. Gradually militarists gained control of the government and dragged Japan into disastrous wars, first with China and then the United States. After years of bitter fighting, Japan surrendered to the United States asnd its Allies (1945). The resulting American occupation introduced foreign ideas, customs, and clothing to Japan as necer before. Traditional clothes for boys had declined by the turn of the century, although it was worn for special or ceremonial occasions. Boys mostly wore western styles. Japanese boys commonly wore short pants during the 1920s and 30s, but not usually with knee socks as in Europe. Shorts appear to have been primarily summer wear. The short pants worn by Japanese boys tended to be rather long, worn at knee length and were generally baggy. Shorts were worn by elementary-age children, but most boys began to wear longs when they reached about 12 or 13 years old and moved to secondary school. Once that happened boys wore long pants at both school and home, even for play and casual wear.

Figure 2.--We see Japanese boys after World War II commonly wearing Western styled clothing. This was especially the case by the 1960s when the country had emerged from the disaster of World War II and becoming a prosperous consumer-based economy. These Japanrse children look to be on a school trip, probably in the 1960s.

Post World War II (1945-90)

Japanese boys after the Second World War initially continued to wear long baggy shorts. The style developed in the 1950s to very short shorts. Mothers saw short shorts as being stylish and European and thought that boys looked sweet in them. Women at the time primarily looked to Europe, not America for fashion, Fathers seemed to think that shorts were good for boys and helped to toughen them, especially during the winter. It was in continental Europe (not English) that boys, even older boys wore short pants, often cut very short. It is interesting that Japanese boys' fashions shifted to Continental European fashions, similar to the shorts worn in France and Italy. The Japanese adopted so many aspects of American popular fashion during the occupation in the 1940s and 1950s--but not boys' fashions. Probably doting Japanese mothers didn't think jeans were suitable for little boys which they wanted to dress more attractively. What ever the origin, short pants were worn as part of school uniforms and for both dress and casual outfits. I'm not sure if popular boys' fashions influenced schools to adopt short pants uniforms or if schools adopting them influenced mothers buy short pants for both dress and casual wear. The fashion trend does not seem to have been set by any central authority. The pervasiveness of the style suggests it was, but I think the short shorts were simply popular with many parents and subsequently adopted by individual school authorities.

Late-20th Century (1990-2000)

Japanese styles appear to be changing in the 1990s. Short shorts are still commonly seen for elementary-age children (boys through about 12 years of age) as school wear and for dress occasions. Even today, despite the invasions of American styles, for a boy to attend a formal event (wedding, school graduation, etc.) in long pants would seem a little odd. Japanese boys might now wear jeans a lot of the time, but he would be in short pants for a formal occasion. Dress up shorts today, however, are typically cuffed and cut just above the knee--until the mid-1990s, they were very short. School uniform shorts are, for the most part, still very, very short, but the style has shifted for individual dress-up clothes. Casual clothes appear, however, to be adopting the long baggy American look. Shorts do not now appear to be exclusively reserved to only elementary boys. Older boys now are beginning to wear shorts as casual clothing. Teenagers are now occasionally seen in the long baggy hip-hop look complete with baseball caps of American teenagers. One disapproving Japanese observer reports in 1999, "The vast majority of boys are wearing the horrid baggy shorts; it seems almost worse this year--below the knee cargo shorts seem the fashion choice this summer. It mystifies me why anyone would voluntarily wear those hot, ugly, uncomfortable looking things but that's what boys from 6 to 22 are wearing here this summer." Another observer reports that dress shorts began to change about 1995 and now are virtually the only short pants available with short pants suits.

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Created: 6:01 PM 3/25/2009
Last updated: 7:04 PM 12/30/2023