Who Wears Jeans?: Acceptance of Jeans in the Showa Era of Japan Viewed from Generations and Genders Yuko KOYAMA This paper explores various aspects of jeans in the Showa era of Japan. Studies on the modern western fashion have showed that jeans are one of the most popular western clothes in the world. However, it has been overlooked that wearing jeans in the Showa era has caused conflicts of fashion/social rules. This paper examines the images of jeans and their experiences of wearing jeans, especially from the 1950s to 1970s, by focusing on three phases: young men, women and kids. Jeans were first brought from the USA as relief supplies after the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923. Japanese people started wearing them after WWII, when they were brought in Japan as GHQ’s supplies. Jeans, which were often worn by American and Japanese movie stars in the 1950s, gradually accepted by young men and students as cool and casual clothes. People had a positive impression of jeans worn by men, while women wearing jeans were considered to be destroyers of Japanese femininity until the 1970s. Also kids (especially boys) wearing jeans were considered to be Americanized and juvenile delinquents. This paper shows that there were impressions of jeans in terms of the different generations and genders in the Showa era of Japan.