ABSTRACT

In the 1920s and 1930s, as the Japanese colonial empire expanded its sphere of influence and the territories under its direct control, there was a project to incorporate imperial ‘subjects’ into the empire as ‘citizens’, albeit based on the superior position of ‘Japan proper’ (naichi) over the newly acquired peripheral regions of imperial Japan. This project involved decisions over whether to exclude or include particular groups. It also had the power to transform structures of gender and class in ‘Japan proper’ itself.