A Look Back at Japan’s Transformative ‘Showa Era’ · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

A Showa-era utility truck in Fukui Prefecture. Image by Nevin Thompson
As Japan heads into high summer, it's a reminder that the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo is just three years away. While there are worries the Tokyo summer games may be too expensive and may leave the Japanese capital cluttered with “white elephants,” this will be in fact the second summer Olympics that Tokyo has hosted.
Tokyo hosted its first Olympics in 1964, and the summer games that year were intended to showcase the economic miracle of Japan as it rose from the ashes of the Second World War.
One blog and Twitter account, “A Tour of Spots from the Showa Era” (@昭和スポット巡り, Showa Spotto Meguri), preserves this postwar history, combing encyclopedias, photo magazines, guidebooks and other sources for nostalgic images from Japan's postwar recovery:
昭和42年　ダイハツ　フェロー　広告 pic.twitter.com/HY2JaCliUN
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 13, 2017
Advertisement for a Daihatsu “Fellow” in 1967.
The Showa era in Japan stretched from 1926 to 1989 and the death of Emperor Hirohito, and covers Japan's descent into military dictatorship, war and subsequent defeat until the country's economic rebirth and growth into the world's second-largest economy in the 1980s.
昭和39年　江戸橋JCT　　日本案内「日本」より pic.twitter.com/drtzfiQTU9
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 17, 2017
1964: Edobashi Junction. From the guidebook “Japan.”
The 1964 Olympics in Tokyo were a defining symbol of this period. Tokyo, already obliterated and rebuilt following the war, was once again reshaped ahead the games, notably with new elevated expressways.
昭和40年代　日本橋兜町　「大日本百科事典」より pic.twitter.com/opBXeeV1Xc
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 13, 2017
The Showa era of the mid-60s to mid-70s. Kabuto-cho, Nippponbashi in Tokyo. Image from Encyclopedia Nipponica.
Besides massive new infrastructure projects such as highways and high-speed rail lines, the Japan of the 1960s and 1970s had become a consumer culture with its unique style.
昭和35年　テレビの天気予報　台風情報 pic.twitter.com/RFHTkvvY2J
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 12, 2017
The television weather report with typhoon updates in 1960.
The decade around the 1964 Olympics also provided some striking designs.
昭和43年頃　国電　「大日本百科事典」より pic.twitter.com/8WS8f7Peoo
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 9, 2017
Trains of Japan National Railways around 1968. Image from Encyclopedia Nipponica.
The “A Tour of Spots from the Showa Era” Twitter account doesn't just explore the Tokyo of the 1960s. There are photos from the 1950s, when Japan was already rocketing to economic recovery, and from different cities, such as this nostalgic image of Osaka:
昭和20年代　道頓堀 pic.twitter.com/kp7mFiTiUX
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 12, 2017
Dotonbori (an entertainment district in Osaka) in the 1950s.
The 1970s was also an iconic time in Showa-era Japan, with its own unmistakable style.
70年代　キッチンタイル pic.twitter.com/xxaG1wN42t
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 12, 2017
Kitchen tiles in the 1970s.
洋菓子喫茶　富士 https://t.co/aBZ3qNWOIE pic.twitter.com/yJZYLZqP9D
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 11, 2017
“Fuji,” a Western-style cake shop.
加茂市　コーヒー ＆ レストラン　ピノキオ https://t.co/Z93T9YNd73 pic.twitter.com/AMeSMRiKUP
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 10, 2017
“Pinocchio,” a coffee shop and restaurant in Kamo City.
’70s国産車のお尻いろいろ pic.twitter.com/tb1VrwVFZM
— 昭和元禄 アングラポップ (@BlackXjs) July 7, 2017
The rear ends of various domestic-model cars in the 1970s.
The Twitter account also captures the look and feel of Japan's postwar cities. Most were built in a hurry, with cheap, utilitarian ferro-concrete architecture that is still a defining characteristic of Japan's fading regional cities in 2017:
岐阜市　レンガ通り商店街 https://t.co/R4vwFtglaw pic.twitter.com/vM2BmQgZT4
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 10, 2017
“Brick Road” shopping street in Gifu City. For more photos, click here: http://showaspotmegri.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2016/11/post-a2c3-15.html
“A Tour of Spots from the Showa Era” also captures parts of Japanese postwar culture that have mostly vanished in 2017:
昭和38年　長距離列車の網棚で寝ているところを警乗員に注意される乗客（国鉄）　「アサヒグラフ」より pic.twitter.com/7TtXilLtic
— 昭和スポット巡り (@showaspotmegri) July 6, 2017
1963: A man sleeping in a luggage rack on a long-distance train is admonished by a train conductor (Japan National Railways). Image from “Asahi Graph.”
To provide a glimpse of how Japan has transformed since the 1964 summer games, earlier in July, Kyodo, a news agency and wire service based in Tokyo, published an online gallery of images that compare Tokyo in 1964 with images of the city in 2017:
GALLERY: “#Tokyo now and then – 1964/2017″ – #history #photography #olympics
https://t.co/dQuvcrmugU
— Kyodo News – English (@kyodo_english) July 12, 2017
More photos of Showa-era Japan can be viewed Twitter and on the Showa Meguri Spotto blog.