The influence of Western ideas and know-how on the modernization of Japan remains one of the most important subjects in Japanese Studies; indeed, today’s Japan cannot be understood without a comprehension of the impact of thought and practice from the West. With regard to the history of women in Japan, Western ideas were especially central since the women’s movement in Japan was founded on the translation of Western books into Japanese, a process that began in Meiji times and continued into the early Showa era. During this period, along with classical texts by such authors as J. S. Mill and Herbert Spencer, some lesser books on the subject were also translated and published in Japanese. This new series from Edition Synapse—now available outside Japan from Routledge—collects some of those texts, many of which have been forgotten, but which nonetheless played important roles in the foundation of Japanese feminism. The second and the final collection includes facsimile reprints of the first editions of the English works which influenced the Japanese women’s movement in the early Showa era by authors, including, among others, Jessica Smith, Bernard Shaw, and Sylvia Pankhurst.
