ABSTRACT
Junior fiction is a literary genre that emerged in the late 1950s. It contributed to the influx of love and sex into girls’ culture. The stories were widely read by schoolgirls between the late 1950s and the 1970s. The characters, boys and girls in coeducational settings, are presented as active and opinionated, and dating and sexual awakening in particular were major topics. This chapter will examine The Castle of Venus by Yoshida Toshi as an example of junior fiction. The story mirrors real teenage issues such as sexual experiences and feelings of love. It also reflects the educational reality of the late 1960s. Yoshida criticizes purity education (comparable to sex education), which the Japanese Ministry of Education promoted to raise teenagers’ sexual morality. Yoshida points out the flaws in purity education and argues that sex education suitable for schoolchildren of the 1960s should be cultivated. Yoshida was one of the writers who utilized the space of the junior fiction magazines to deliver thoughts on the issues of teenagers and sex. Writers asserted the importance of love based on individual choice but considered that true love should culminate in marriage, a goal of purity education.
