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Showa (Page 2)

The detail on these Japanese dollhouses is amazing!

While dollhouses have been popular in Europe for centuries, they didn’t really develop a strong showing in Japan until the 1970s. However, since they’ve gained a foothold in Japanese society, they’ve gained popularity and a number of domestic craftsmen have appeared. One of the hottest dollhouse makers in Japan (a phrase we never thought we’d write) has gotten a lot of attention online due to the high quality of the miniatures–particularly the dollhouses based on Japanese buildings!

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Stinky train tracks, expensive imports and no weekends: netizens remember Showa-era Japan

The Showa period (1926-1989) was a time of immense change for Japan when the country went from being an imperial power to a poverty-stricken post-war nation and then becoming an economic powerhouse that dominated automotive and electronic industries around the world. Twenty-seven years since that era ended and the current Heisei era began, fond memories of “Showa Japan” still flood many Japanese minds.

But a recent online poll asked netizens to take off their rose-tinted glasses and consider the aspects of daily Showa-period life that, while seeming completely normal back then, would be unthinkable now. Join us after the jump for a look at the slightly grim feedback.

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Itadakimasu! A brief history of the evolution of Japanese school lunches

In the 22nd year of the Meiji era (aka 1889), the very first Japanese kyūshoku (school lunch) was served up at an elementary school in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture. Although the first menu was very simply prepared, it provided the growing children with an important source of nourishment that not all of them could receive at home.

Fast-forward to 2015–Japanese schoolchildren (and their teachers!) continue to eat school lunches every day, as opposed to children in many other countries who bring their lunches from home. If you’re working in a Japanese school, you should already be familiar with the daily feeling of either excitement or disappointment when you see the lunch menu for the day. But just consider this–would you rather eat the types of lunches served today, or those that were served 100 years ago? Read on to learn about the evolution of Japanese school lunches and decide for yourself!

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‘Smell my spit!’ and other Japanese teachers’ corporal punishments

It goes without saying that corporal punishment is unforgivable. At least that’s the mode of thinking these days (and boy are we glad for it), but it wasn’t always the case. In the Showa Period (1926 to 1989), it was incredibly common in elementary, middle, and high schools. In fact, it was so common that it seemed almost inconceivable for a school not to have corporal punishment.

Still, we wondered what it was really like, so the prestigious RocketNews24 Japan team took a survey to find out what sorts of punishments were common in the Showa Period. Read More

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