Figure 1.--Jeans were not very popular for primary school children. Parents apparently didn't like them. Jean shorts, however, were very popular beginning in the 1950s. Here we see a boy wearing jean shorts in a fun shadow photograph anout 1980. Put your cursor on the image for a full view of the shadow.

HBC still has relatively little information on the style of pants worn by Japanese boys over time. Actually we think it was not very common during the 19th century, even after the Menji Resoration. Information is especially limited during earlier periods. Traditional dress, especially in rural areas, was commonly worn even in the late 19th century. Only gradually after the Menji Restoration did boys begin wearing pants. This occurred first almong elite groups in the major cities and only gradually grew in popularity. School uniform was a major way in which pants were introduced to Japanese boys. This began to change in the early 20th century as pants became more and more popular. Boys commonly wore Western dress, especially after World War I. We begin to have much more information on Japan in the 20th century, especially after World War II. Many boys wore short pants, I'm not sure if it was seasonal. Boys wore long baggy shorts. After World War II, boys by the early 1950s began wearing shorter, more trim fitting short pants. Styles changed over time, but continued to be quite short until the mid-1990s. Jeans also became popular in Japan, but I'm not sure just when.

The 19th Century

HBC still has relatively little information on the style of pants worn by Japanese boys over time. Our information is especially limited during earlier periods. Actually we think it was not very common during the 19th century. As far we know, Japanese boys did not wear pants at all before Commodore Perry opened Japan to the outside world (1853). Even after the Menji Resoration (1868), however, pants for boys were not very common. Traditional dress, especially in rural areas, was commonly worn even in the late 19th century. Only gradually after the Menji Restoration did boys begin wearing pants. This occurred first almong elite groups in the major cities and only gradually grew in popularity. School uniform was a major way in which pants were introduced to Japanese boys. Education was one of the major Menji reforms. And Western styled uniforms were introduced. Authorities chose a Prussian cadet uniform for boys and a English-styled sailor dress for the girls. These uniforms were not universally worn, but I think they were worn at most of not all secondary schools and at least some city primary schools. This had a najor impact on children's clothes.

The 20th Century

Children clothes began to change in the early 20th century as pants became more and more popular. Traditional dress became less and less common for boys. Changes for girls were more gradual, in part because greater attention was given to boys' education and the schools were a major way in which Western dress was introduced. Boys commonly wore Western dress, especially after World War I. We begin to have much more information on Japan after Wirld War II. Many boys wore short pants, I'm not sure if it was seasonal. Boys wore long baggy shorts. After World War II, boys by the early 1950s began wearing shorter, more trim fitting short pants. Styles changed over time, but continued to be quite short until the mid-1990s. Jeans also became popular in Japan, but I'm not sure just when.

The 1900s

Boys by the turn of the 20th century, especially in urban areas were increasingly wearing Western style pants. Children clothes began to change in the early 20th century as pants became more and more popular. Traditional dress became less and less common for boys. Changes for girls were more gradual, in part because greater attention was given to boys' education and the schools were a major way in which Western dress was introduced.

The 1920s

Boys commonly wore Western dress, especially after World War I

The 1930s

Most boys bybthe 1930s wore Western oants rather than traditional dress. Yonger biys wore short pants, generally long baggy ones. I'm not sure if shorts were seasinal wear.

The 1940s

We note many younger Japanese boys wearing suspender shorts in the 1940s. A good example is an unidentified Japanese boy in 1947.

The 1950s

Boys in the 1950s began wearing shorter, more trim fitting shorts. This fashion shift was part of Japan's fascination with foreign fashions. Presumably Europe was the inspiration, despite the fact that America occupied the country in 1945.

The 1960s

An American HBC Contributor reports on the type of pants being worn in Japan during the 1960s. He attended a Japanese high school.

I first came to Japan in 1968 and spent about 10 months here. I was enrolled in a Japanese highschool and wore the traditional Japanese secondary school uniform. There was an elementary school down the block from my high school. It was a non-uniformed school. I noticed that when the weather turned warmer, that virtually all the boys started wearing short pants. It should be noted however, that I was not in Tokyo. I was up in Sendai, several hundred miles north of Tokyo, which has a much more severe winter. (Despite the severity of the winter, there were a few boys who wore short pants straight through, even on sub-freezing days.) I believe from what my Japanese friends tell me that at the time in Tokyo virtually all primary school boys wore short pants all the time and that this was also true farther south (Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka).

The 1970s

Short pants continued to be commonly worn by Japanese elementary age boys. The styles were the short cut type that became popular in the 1950s. Boys did not commonly wear long pants, except on the northern island of Honschu where the winters can be quite severe.

The 1980s

Sometime early in the 1980s, many older Japanese elementary-age boys (5th and 6th grades) began wearing long pants for the first time (usually jeans) in the winter. This was a development that some of my Japanese friends criticized because they thought it suggested boys were becoming soft. I don't know the extent to which it was driven by 1) fashion, 2) a wish to appear "older" and more mature, or 3) simple discomfort. My guess is the third, because virtually all boys were still wearing short shorts in warmer weather. One HBC contributor reports,

I recall being in downtown Tokyo in June 1989 in front of the theater run by Nippon Seimei in Hibiya. This theater has a public service program every year of bringing 6th grade children throughout Tokyo for a free afternoon at the theater. There were several hundred sixth graders from many different schools. Every single boy--every single one --was in very short shorts, some with knee socks, some with tube socks, some with ankle socks. The weather was very warm, but even so if boys wanted to look "older" or "in fashion" you would have seen jeans here and there.) Of course, it only happened at schools that had no uniform requirement or no short pants requirements. But those boys that did wear shorts (still the vast majority in the summer time and a substantial minority in the winter even in the upper grades) wore either the traditional Japanese short-shorts style or the American short basketball/soccer shorts style that was also popular in the States at that time.

The 1990s

Beginning in the early 1990s, you begin to see the first signs of a style shift among elementary school boys' short pants. (Shorts for college-age boys and men have gone through a dizzying array of style changes since they first appeared in the early 1980s, but were always sharply different from younger boys' styles until the mid-1990s,) The shift took about 5 years--roughly 1992 to 1997. At the beginning -- and this may be significant -- the dressier longer shorts were seen pretty much in the fashion magazines only (not the department store catalogues) and in some of the trendier children's clothing stores, not in what boys were actually wearing. But by 1997, the style had become ubiquitous. However, I think the ratio of down-to-the-ankle long pants to every other form of pants, from below-the knee to very shortvcut shorts, has stayed about the same since the early 1980s. If anything, because gobutake long shorts are "cool" and not so uncomfortably cold in the winter as traditional hanzubon, I think jeans wearing has declined somewhat from the 1980s (as it has in the States). Japanese sources are not sure why the style of short pants changed so significantly in the 1990s. The change has, however, been pervasive. There is vitually no stock of short short pants in almost all stores, with few exceptions. One Japanese source speculates that the popularity of the American culture among teenagers was a major contributing factor. This combined with the increasing influence of the child over the clothes purchased for him are probably the major factors.

The 21st Century

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Created: 7:09 PM 12/2/2006
Last updated: 7:09 PM 12/2/2006