Yūben

Yūben (雄辯, Eloquence) was a Japanese monthly magazine which focused on public speaking. It was in circulation in Tokyo between 1910 and 1941 and gained popularity among different sectors of the Japanese society.

Yūben
CategoriesOratory magazine
FrequencyMonthly
PublisherDainihon Yūbenkai
FounderSeiji Noma
Founded1910
First issueFebruary 1910
Final issue1941
CountryJapan
Based inTokyo
LanguageJapanese

History and profile

Yūben was launched by Seiji Noma in 1910 as a monthly magazine, and its first issue appeared in February that year.[1][2] Noma was also the founder of the publishing house Kodansha which was first named Dainihon Yūbenkai (Japanese: the Great Japanese Oratorical Society).[1] Yūben was the first magazine started by the company.[3] The goal of Yūben was to improve the self-expression ability of young people which was considered to be significant for democracy.[4] Therefore, the magazine provided scholarly and popular articles about oratory and published the texts of the speeches by orators[4] who included Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan and Theodore Roosevelt.[5]

Yūben also featured articles in regard to the historical significance of public speaking and its impacts on the modernization of Japan.[4] These articles were both instructive and entertaining.[6] The first issue of Yūben had a circulation of 14,000 copies.[2] Over time it became very popular among intellectuals, politicians, and university student and read by nearly all politicians of the period.[4] The first issue of the magazine was edited by the academics from Tokyo Imperial University.[4] The contributors of the following issues were individuals from various public and private institutions.[4] In the period between 1930 and 1935 the magazine organized 14 comprehensive debates where university students publicly discussed the common problematic political topics of the period, including capital punishment and international marriage.[4] Yūben folded in 1941.[1]

References
  1. Junya Morooka (2014). "Historical Inquiry Into Debate Education In Early 20th Century Japan: The Case of Intercollegiate Debates In Yūben". Rozenberg Quarterly.
  2. Catherine Yoonah Bae (2008). All the girl's a stage: Representations of femininity and adolescence in Japanese girls' magazines, 1930s–1960s (PhD thesis). Stanford University. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-0-549-62286-4. ProQuest 304468205.
  3. "Books: Clubby Magazines". Time. 10 September 1934. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  4. Massimiliano Tomasi (Spring 2002). "Oratory in Meiji and Taishō Japan: Public Speaking and the Formation of a New Written Language". Monumenta Nipponica. 57 (1): 43–71. JSTOR 3096691.
  5. Roichi Okabe (1987). "American Public Address in Japan: A Case Study in the Introduction of American Oratory through the Yuben (Monthly Magazine on Oratory)". In Richard J. Jensen; John C. Hammerback (eds.). In Search of Justice: The Indiana Tradition in Speech Communication. Amsterdam: Rodopi. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-90-6203-968-5.
  6. S. Takahashi (1946). "The Magazines of Japan" (PDF). EVols. 13 (1): 55.
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