Japanese children’s Literature beyond Stereotypes

The purpose of the paper is to highlight the attempts of going beyond gender stereotypes in representing girls and adult women in Japanese contemporary children’s literature. Even if Japan is a pioneering country in many fields, it’s still connected to certain well-defined social roles, and female image in children’s books reflects this situation. After a brief introduction concerning the image of female characters in children’s works following the renewal in Japanese children’s literature in the 1960s, the focus moves to some representative recent works trying to go beyond delicate girls or housekeeper adult women. Some examples from realistic genre and fantasy are introdiced like Yamanbayama No Mokkotachi (Mokkos in the Mountain Yamanba, 1986) by Tomiyasu Yōko (1959-), Handsome Girl (1993) by Takako Satō (1962-) and the final volume of the series Majo no Takkyūbin (Kiki's Delivery Service, 1985-2009) by Eiko Kadono (1935-).