日本殖民統治帶來新移民與嶄新的教育思潮，川上音二郎劇團1911年在臺北的兒童劇演出，讓日本學童得以追隨母國時興的文化潮流，也開啟臺灣新式兒童戲劇的首頁。其他日本後繼者陸續來臺，開始出現售票表演，其觀眾大多數仍以日本人為主。直到1920年代隨著小、公學校學藝會等演出需要，形成整體普遍流行，臺籍兒童才有機會接觸新式戲劇。小、公學校內的戲劇演出內容與國語課、唱歌課連結，偏重日本文化相關主題，以增強日語能力為目的。原本觀眾以家長、師生為主，但1930年代日本向外擴展軍事行動，兒童戲劇開始出現軍國主義、保密防諜等題材，甚至變成慰問將士的表演。幾乎與臺灣歷史、傳說無關的演出內容，增添此一世代孩童對所居之地的陌生感，影響至今。

Since the rule of Taiwan by the Japanese government, their authorities had brought in a lotof immigrants and new educational trends. In 1911, the troupe of Kawakami Otojir performedchildren´s plays in Taipei to make Japanese children in Taiwan able to follow the then culturaltrend on their motherland. This was also the first time that the occidental acting style theatrewas presented in Taiwan. Other successors from Japan came to Taiwan and held some ticketingperformances; however, at that time the majority of the audience were Japanese. Most of theTaiwanese children had no chance to know the new style theatre until the 1920s when they had toact in school plays by themselves.The content of performances in elementary schools was related to Japanese lessons andmusic lessons, which emphasized the Japanese themes for strengthening students´ Japaneselanguage ability. Originally, the audience in schools were teachers, students and parents. BecauseJapan had extended military operations to foreign countries since the 1930s, themes such as“militarism＂ and “wiping spies out＂ appeared in the children´s theatre, which sometimeseven became the consolation shows for the military. In that period, only few plays were producedon Taiwanese stories or Taiwanese legends, so themes on Taiwan were always strange to childrenin that generation. The influence continued until nowadays.