Shogaku Years

The ***Shogaku Years*** (Japanese: 小学年生誌, *Shogaku Nenseishin*), also known as ***Shogakukan Year-Grade Educational Magazine*** (Japanese: 小学館学年別学習雑誌, *Shogakukan Gakunenbetsu Gakushuu Zasshi*), refers to a series of educational magazines that were published by Shogakukan.

## About the magazines

The educational magazines started in 1922 with the launch of both the ***Shogaku Year 5*** (Japanese: 小學五年生, *Shogaku Gonensei*) and ***Shogaku Year 6*** (Japanese: 小學六年生, *Shogaku Rokunensei*) magazines, aiming at Japanese elementary school students at Grade 5 and 6. ***Shogaku Year 4*** (Japanese: 小學四年生, *Shogaku Yonnensei*), made for the Grade 4 elementary school students, was launched in 1924.

In 1925, Shogakukan launched ***Seugaku Year 1*** (Japanese: セウガク一年生, *Seugaku Ichinensei*), ***Seugaku Year 2*** (Japanese: セウガク二年生, *Shogaku ninensei*) and ***Seugaku Year 3*** (Japanese: せうがく三年生, *Seugaku Sannensei*), targeting Grade 1, 2 and 3 elementary students in Japan respectively.

In 1941, following a edict in which elementary schools were renamed to as National People's Schools, all educational magazines publish by Shogakukan were renamed. For example, *Seugaku Year 1* was renamed as ***Gokumin Year 1*** (Japanese: 國民一年生, *Gokumin Ichinensei*). In 1942, the educational magazine were refreshed as part of Imperial Japan's war economy, with *Gokumin Year 1* and *Gokumin Year 2* being merged into ***Yoiko no Tomo*** (Japanese: 良い子の友, *Yoiko no Tomo*), *Gokumin Year 3*, *Gokumin Year 4* and *Gokumin Year 5* being merged into ***Shoukokumin no Tomo*** (Japanese: 少國民の友, *Shoukokumin no Tomo*) and *Gokumin Year 6* being renamed to ***Seishounen no Tomo***(Japanese: 青少年の友, *Seishounen no Tomo*). Shogakukan later relaunched *Gokumin Year 1* and *Gokumin Year 2* in 1946.

After the end of World War II which saw the abolishment of the all school edicts and also the establishment of the School Education Act, Shogakukan renamed the *Gokumin Year 1* and *Gokumin Year 2* to ***Shogaku Year 1*** (Japanese: 小学一年生, *Shogaku Ichinensei*) and ***Shogaku Year 2*** (Japanese: 小学二年生, *Shogaku ninensei*) respectively, and in December of the same year, Shogakukan relaunched ***Shogaku Year 4*** (Japanese: 小学四年生, *Shogaku Yonnensei*). 1948 saw the relaunch of ***Shogaku Year 3*** (Japanese: 小学三年生, *Shogaku Sannensei*), ***Shogaku Year 5*** (Japanese: 小学五年生, *Shogaku Gonensei*) and ***Shogaku Year 6*** (Japanese: 小学六年生, *Shogaku Rokunensei*), completing the educational magazine lineup once more. Shogakukan later ceases publications of *Yoiko no Tomo*, *Shoukokumin no Tomo* and *Seishounen no Tomo* in the 50's.

In 1982, Shogakukan launched ***Gakushuu Youchien*** (Japanese: 学習幼稚園, *Gakushuu Youchien*)} as part of the educational magazine lineup, targeting children aged 4 to 6.

In 2009, Shogakukan ceased the publication of *Shogaku Year 6*, and in the following years, the publisher later ceased a number of educational magazine publications, namely *Shogaku Year 4* in 2010, both *Shogaku Year 3* and *Shogaku Year 4* in 2012, and *Shogaku Year 2* in 2016. The discontinuation of a those educational magazines were causes by the lower numbers of them being sold.

2017 saw the launch of ***Shogaku Year 8*** (Japanese: 小学八年生, *Shogaku Hachinensei*) which, despite its naming, is targeting Japanese elementary students ranging from Grade 2 to Grade 6, filling the voids left by *Shogaku Year 2* to *Shogaku Year 6*.

During the 70's to the 2000's, the educational magazines are also where several manga works were published on. For works that focused on the Mini 4WD racing, only a few works, namely *Mini 4 Top* and *Mini 4 Kids*, got the compiled volume releases.