著者

難波 功士

出版者

関西学院大学

雑誌

関西学院大学社会学部紀要 (ISSN:04529456)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.97, pp.141-148, 200, 2004-10-28

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Before the 1960s, in Japanese society young people were usually called 'Seinen'. But, from the 1970s they have been usually called 'Wakamono'. In this paper, I intended to describe the changes of names for the young and think about why such changes happened. My findings include three points. 1) In the 1960s, Youth Culture (Wakamono-Bunka) spread all over the world and in Japan adolescent culture (Seinen-Bunka) was taken over by Wakamono-Bunka which was more anti-authoritarian and hedonistic. 2) In the 1970s, Youth Culture was diluted and diffused. It became more docile and consumption-oriented. As it were, Youth Culture as a unique noun was transformed into youth culture as a common noun. In Japan the youth who liked such youth culture were called 'Yangu' and their personalities were considered more realistic and privatismic. 3) In the 1980s, in Japan the youth had begun to be called 'Shin-Jinrui', which means 'new type of human being'. They were familiar with various media and didn't have the consciousness of belonging to the same age group or generation. They were fragmented into many cliques depending on their interest and taste. Through these processes, Seinen (-Bunka) became a dead word, and simultaneously Youth Culture (Wakamono-Bunka) lost its original ideas linked to a certain generation and period.