Hikaru Tanaka (born 1970) is a Japanese sociologist whose work focuses on women’s history and social attitudes toward menstruation. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Gakushuin University, she studied history at Senshu University and sociology at Yokohama National University, where she earned a doctorate. Her research examines how social institutions and prevailing beliefs have shaped perceptions of women’s bodies and lives, with subjects including claims linking menstruation to crime, the development of menstrual products, and women medical practitioners in modern Japan. In her representative work, "Seiri Yōhin no Shakaishi," Tanaka traced menstrual care from the use of plants, cloth, and absorbent cotton to the spread of disposable sanitary pads, revealing how changes in menstrual products transformed attitudes toward menstruation, women’s participation in society, and Japanese society itself.
