Eating in Between: Sweets and Snacking in Modern Japan という題名でハワイ大学出版会より単著が刊行予定である。近代化とともに菓子の生産と消費が拡大する中、日本社会がどのように間食と向き合い、どのような価値をお菓子に見出してきたのかを問い、高度甘味社会・間食大衆社会への変遷を分析することが目的である。当該年度は本研究の最終年度であった。研究が対象とする時代を、明治後期（1870 年代）から昭和後期（1970 年代）に絞り、間食大衆社会の台頭する約 100 年の変化とその要因を解明した。大人から子どもへ消費者が移ったこと、和菓子から洋菓子へと嗜好が変化したこと、家内制手工業から工場制機械工業へと生産体制が様変わりしたこと、洋菓子は当初健康食として普及したが後に子どもの健康を害する加工食品として問題視されるようになったこと、合理化する世の中で贈り物として持つ機能が見直されていったことなどを取り上げた。近代化する社会において、菓子が日常生活にいかにして根を下ろし、人間関係をどのように規定するに至ったのか―。高度甘味社会の成立条件を浮き彫りにすることができた。当該年度は、Association of Asian Studiesにて論文を発表を実施し、甘味を歴史的に研究する世界の研究者とパネルを組んだ。また、出版社に提出する原稿の英文校正も依頼し、著書の出版に向けた最終活動に従事した。
A monograph entitled "Eating in Between: Sweets and Snacking in Modern Japan" is forthcoming from the University of Hawaii Press. As a result of modernization, the production and consumption of confectionery expanded, inviting questions about the value of snacking and sweets for society at large.
The aim was to analyze the transition to a society in which sweets and snacks became a part of consumer society. In its final year, the investigation covered the late Meiji period (1870s) to the late Showa period (1970s) to elucidate the changes and their factors over a period of about 100 years during the rise of mass snacking society. The following factors were identified: the shift of consumers from adults to children; the change in tastes from Japanese confectionery to Western confectionery; the change in production systems from cottage industry to factory-based machine industry; the spread of Western confectionery as a healthy food at first, which later became problematic as a processed food that was harmful to children's health; the shift in the rationalization of the world to a emphasis more on emotions; the investigation also revealed the changing function of sweets as gifts. How did confectionery take root in everyday life in modernizing societies, and how did it come to define human relationships? The conditions for the establishment of a highly sweet-tasting society were highlighted. In the year under review, I presented a paper at the Association of Asian Studies and formed a panel with researchers from around the world engaged with the historical study of sweetness. The completed manuscript was also sent for English editing.