<p>This study reviews how recent English-language, Scopus-indexed journal scholarship has discussed Javanese cultural transformation under modernisation and globalisation. Using a PRISMA-guided systematic literature review of articles published between 2016 and 2025, the study identified 22 eligible articles and synthesised them through evidence mapping, thematic analysis, and MMAT-informed critical appraisal. Because the corpus is limited to English-language journal articles indexed in Scopus, the review should be read as a bounded synthesis of one segment of the literature rather than as a comprehensive account of Javanese cultural change. Within this corpus, studies most frequently examine language, naming, mediated discourse, ritual life, heritage and tourism, and material-spatial transformation. The reviewed literature tends to frame cultural change through adaptation, hybridisation, reinterpretation, commodification, and resilience, although these mechanisms often overlap and are unevenly supported across studies. The review also finds that embodied aesthetics, including cosmetology and appearance-related practices, are weakly represented in the included studies and appear mainly as incidental or supporting elements. This suggests a potential area for further research rather than a definitive field-wide gap. The study contributes a cautious cross-domain synthesis of recent journal evidence and highlights the need for broader reviews that include Indonesian-language scholarship, books, local reports, comparative fieldwork, and longitudinal research. Future studies should examine how power relations, digital mediation, tourism economies, gendered authority, and uneven cultural transmission shape cultural transformation.</p>