Heibon (published by Magazine House) was founded as a literary magazine in 1945, but it changed into a popular magazine for amusement in 1948. It had two main elements-photogravures and stories. Being tied up with both radio and cinema in many ways, it enlarged its circulation during the first half of the 1950's. However, with the spread of TV during the 1960's, Heibon changed into a magazine whose main element was photogravures featuring TV celebrities. By doing so, it expanded its circulation again during the first half of the 1970's, but was finally discontinued in 1987.

The discontinuation of the magazine may be explained by three factors influencing each other. First, the change from the age of radio and cinema into that of TV diminished the role of Heibon. Second, Myojo (published by Shueisha) gained more popularity than Heibon since the 1970's. Third, Magazine House changed into a company mainly publishing ‘lifestyle-magazines’ which depend heavily on income from advertisements.

The three changes about Heibon - two changes of itself and one change of its publisher are very important when we examine popular magazines in post-war Japan.

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Bronchial asthma is regarded as a disease thich has various causes such as allergy, autonomic nervous disturbances, psychological upset, air pollution, weather, sex and age. Therefore this disease demands a comprehensive treatment which includes environmental improvement, physical training, pulmonary rehabilitation, psychological therapsy and prophylactic drug therapy. These therapies should be combined according to the condition of the patient. When an asthmatic child, however serious his or her condition is, lives asey from home and is placed under residential therapy, the child will get better and grow up mentally. But it is not rare that the child gets worse when he or she goes back home to stay one or some nights leaving hospital. In order to maintain the effect of residential therapy, it is important to improve the relationship between patient and parent while the child is in hospital. I have been conducting a therapy by use of music to improve the relationship between an asthmatic boy and his mother. I had session with a patient and his mother. First the patient and his mother chose their own favorite pieces of music, and then they work together to find pieces of music which both persons like. A few days later, the mother listened to the music which her child had chosen, and vice versa. I had therapeutic sessions with them at imtervals of four weeks. I conducted the therapy with two asthmatic pre-adolescent boys and the results are as follows : 1. By listening to the same pieces of music, the patient and his mother found common topic for their conversation and a desirable change was observed in the unhealthy and too-close retationship between patient and mother whose interest used to be centered around his asthmatic condition. 2. Listening to the music the child had chosen helped the mother understand him empathetically and accept his wish to be independent. 3. Although an asthmatic child is generally gassive toward developing contact with others, he can learn to associate with other children of the same generation through their interest in music. The present approach to asthmatic children through music still needs more experiments, but as it looks worthwhile, I would like to continue at the present study.

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This study, as part of examining the important legacy that director Shinji Somai (1948-2001) left to film history, considers the theme of community and individual which he developed in his films of the 1980s. As pointed out in previous studies, many of Somai’s films feature helpless characters such as “orphans,” who have no protectors nor place to go. What this study focuses on is their making various gestures repeatedly, such as singing or dancing, to establish a place for themselves. In Somai’s films, those helpless characters are frequently found singing or dancing, especially in adverse circumstances. These actions also help them form a temporary community with others in the same circumstances. In Typhoon Club (1985), junior high school boys and girls happen to be shut up in their school building during a typhoon, which leads to a temporary group of boys and girls. The legacy that Somai has left to us is explored by examining these groups or communities in his films, that is, the “communities of orphans.”

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