is a genre of Japanese

popular fiction Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. A num ...

aimed at an audience of girls that emerged in the early 20th century. The genre has been published across literary formats, including novels, short stories, essays, and memoirs. It is typically divided into four subcategories that correspond to chronological periods: * Japanese translations of foreign literary classics aimed at girls, e.g. ''

A Little Princess ''A Little Princess'' is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published as a book in 1905. It is an expanded version of the short story "Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's", which was serialized in '' St. Nicholas M ...

'' by

Frances Hodgson Burnett Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' (published in 1885–1886), '' A Little ...

; * Prose fiction published in '' shōjo'' magazines of the early 20th century, e.g. ''Hana Monogatari'' by

Nobuko Yoshiya was a Japanese novelist active in Taishō and Shōwa period Japan. She was one of modern Japan's most commercially successful and prolific writers, specializing in serialized romance novels and adolescent girls' fiction, as well as a pioneer in ...

; * of the 1960s and 1970s, e.g. the works of

Seiko Tanabe was a Japanese author. She graduated from the Department of Japanese Literature of Shōin Joshi Senmon Gakkō (now Osaka Shoin Women's University). Author of numerous novels, she won the Akutagawa Prize, Yomiuri Prize, and Asahi Prize, and recei ...

; *

Light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

s published in ''shōjo'' fiction magazines such as ''

Cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...

'', e.g. the works of

Saeko Himuro Saeko is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings *サエコ in katakana *さえこ in hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic letterin ...

References

Bibliography

* {{lit-genre-stub Women's fiction Women in Japan Women's entertainment