If we turn to the history of modern Japanese mass culture, we can note that it clearly distinguishes three main stages: the end of the XIX century - the Second World War; the post-war years-the end of the XX century; the beginning of the XXI century-the modern period. The main milestones of this division can be considered the emergence of the first mass press-newspapers, magazines and the formation of cinema, then power passed into the hands of radio and television, and, finally, the Internet won the final victory in the entire media space, which defined new laws for the functioning of all other genres of mass culture. WHAT WAS IT LIKE The first wave of pop culture, which was based on media such as newspapers and magazines, novels, sheet music, music recordings and children's books, covers the period from the late 19th century to the Second World War. It was marked mainly by the development of the literary industry and the formation of the mass press in the modern sense of the word. Books, newspapers, and magazines have become large enterprises for "processing" the readership. Along with the news, newspapers widely disseminated the latest trends from urban-style centers: New York, Paris, London, etc., shaping the tastes and mores of the country's population. Mass Japanese literature owes its appearance to the mass press. Kikuchi Kan's" Lady Pearl "("Shinju Fujin") paved the way for"public novels" to be published from issue to issue in newspapers. It was published in the Tokyo Nitinichi Shimbun and Osaka Mainichi Shimbun newspapers in October 1920 and was a great success. The readers ' imagination was struck by the luxury of the depicted environment and the sharpness of the plot. From the pen of Kikuchi came a lot of similar works, which are based on the same type of melodrama, flavored in a fair amount of elements of romance, sentimentality and entertainment. Public access to novels allowed Kikuchi Kan to take a leading position in the Bungei Shunju (Literary Chroni ... Read more