The Formation of the Consciousness of Schoolchildren of the Magazines Published by Hakubunkan Press

With a Focus a Focus on “Yonen Sekai”

Abstract

This paper considers "Yonen Sekai" which was a popular magazine with schoolchildren in the early 20th century, and analyzes the consciousness of its readers. Hakubunkan was not the only publishing company of the magazine. The company had huge capital and made a profit on their monthly magazines. These students formed invisible "readers' communities," which led to the magazine's success and boosted sales. The magazine was read by many schoolchildren who were kind to others and studied diligently. That made the image of "Yonen Sekai." The publication of the magazine was suspended temporarily from 1909 to 1911, but continued publishing until 1923. Kuzuhara Shigeru greatly influenced the decision to continue publishing the magazine through his use of the "readers' column" which helped readers find their friends and thereby increased the magazine's readership. By analyzing their opinions and feedback in the readers' column, it turns out that many of the published opinions had a lot to do with nationalism.