The purpose of this paper is to analyze the recent change of how we look to and express conditions, goods and foods, plays, and other things in the Showa 30s (1955-64). Firstly, I pick up all the articles of Asahi news paper from 1985 to 2005, which contain the term "the Showa 30s", and then classify them into 4 categories, depending on direct reference to the things and affairs in the Showa 30s and some comparison with those at present. Thus, I find that the articles referring to the Showa 30s have shown little change in number in the recent years, and come to the same conclusion by making a comparison between the Showa 30s and the present. Secondly, I focus on the articles which have direct reference and compare the things and affairs in the Showa 30s with ones at present, and sort them into smaller, more specific 3 categories: 1) "public" themes (i.e., politics, economics, and other public matters), 2) "private" themes (people's everyday affairs, sentiment to them, and so on), 3) others (difficult to be classified into the former 2 categories). My finding is as follows: though the number of the articles using the method of comparison shows little change, in and after 1990s, there is a great fall in the proportion of the articles on "public" themes and equally great rise on "private" themes. This might be the result of the social changes in 1990s having influenced the themes of the articles about the Showa 30s.
|
