Introduction

In 2023, the shōjo manga exhibition and lecture series, “Shojo Manga! Girl Power!” and “World of Shojo Manga: Mirrors of Girls’ Desires,” organized and curated by Masami Toku since 2005, came to an end after over eighteen years of traveling around the world. While the title of the exhibition includes the term shōjo (girls), many of the works displayed depicted josei (women). The portrayal of girlhood in shōjo manga has been thoroughly studied for decades. However, the representation of josei in manga has not received the same comprehensive exploration as shōjo. The goal of Women’s Voices in Manga is to examine women in the context of Japanese history, culture, and society, investigating how manga reflect women’s gender issues and social problem, and how, over time, women’s images in manga transformed.