The focus of this presentation is on popular youth fashion trends in Japan. This presentation has been enhanced with photos, videos, and website links to excellent sources on Japanese culture and fashion as well as website links to Japanese stores, which can be used for educational exercises. This presentation is appropriate for grades 6-12 and would be most useful in geography or world cultures classrooms. Check out updates at

Bixby Middle School Presents…

Popular Youth Styles in Japan

By Catherine Woods and Karan Stubbs, World Geography Teachers, Bixby Middle School

Where is the Center of Teen Fashion in Japan? Tokyo – the youth in Tokyo set the fashion trends for all of Japan and most of Asia. Many of their trendy fashions have also traveled across the Pacific to the United States. Two special wards of Tokyo, Shibuya and Harajuku, are where two totally different styles of Japanese youth fashion begin.

Shibuya Shibuya is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo. It is also the name used to refer to the business district which surrounds Shibuya Station, one of Tokyo's busiest railway stations. Shibuya is known as one of the fashion centers of Japan, particularly for young people. Shibuya 109 Building is a shopping center filled with many very trendy clothing boutiques. Visit their website and check out the shops (click on shop list):

What is Kawaii?

Japans teen fashion industry revolves entirely around what Tokyo girls say is kawaii (usually translated as cute). Tokyo girls spend three times more than the average Japanese high-schooler on their wardrobes keeping up with what is considered kawaii. Japans high-schoolers read, on average, at least five fashion magazines a month to see what is kawaii. To keep up with kawaii, Japanese fashion firms in Shibuya hire karisuma tenin (charismatic salesgirls who are still in high school) as salesgirls, stylists and marketers. These girls have a knack for keeping ahead of fashion trends.

What is Ganguro? Ganguro is an alternative fashion trend of which the Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts of Tokyo are the center. In ganguro fashion, a deep tan is combined with hair dyed in shades of orange to blonde, or a silver grey (high bleached). Eyes are lined with black ink and white concealer is used as lipstick and eyeshadow. Ganguro use false eyelashes, plastic facial gems, and pearl powder.

Harajuku Harajuku is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward. The area is known internationally for its youth style and fashion One of the main shopping streets in this district caters to youth fashions and has many small stores selling Gothic Lolita, visual kei, rockabilly, hip-hop, and punk outfits. Visual kei is dressing up like your favorite band. Many youth cosplay or dress up in costumes and act out scenes from Anime (animated cartoons).

Cosplaying

Dressing Lolita aims to imitate the look of Victorian children or porcelain dolls.

Check out Tokyo Eyes episodes on the Gothloli look: Part I: XFRPA Part I: XFRPA XFRPA XFRPA Part II: AbIvQ AbIvQ AbIvQ

Teenagers hanging out at Harajuku Station on a Sunday afternoon

Harajuku and Fruits Magazine Shoichi Aoki began documenting street fashion in the Harajuku area in the mid 1990s when he noticed a change in the way young people were dressing. Rather than following European and American trends, people were customizing elements of traditional Japanese dress and combining them with handmade, secondhand and alternative designer fashion in an innovative 'DIY' approach to dressing, often imitating characters from their favorite mangas and bands. In 1997 Shoichi Aoki started the monthly magazine FRUiTS, now a cult fanzine with an international following, to record the freshness of fashion in Harajuku.

Shoichi Aoki

Visit wikiHow to learn how to dress Harajuku Style: Style Style Style Check out the styles of Harajuku teenagers playing to the Gwen Stefani song, Harajuku Girls: BXPWg BXPWg BXPWg

Other Influences from Comic Books and Animated Films Maid Cafes are inspired by Japanese video games where the main characters work as maids in a restaurant. Hardcore gamers and anime fans, known as otaku, or nerds, are doted upon by maids who called customers master and would even blow on food to cool it off. Akihabara is a district in central Tokyo, famous for its many electronics shops. In recent years, it has also gained fame as a center of the gaming, manga (Japanese comic books) and animation culture (animated films). This area has become flooded with maid cafes.

Check out Tokyo Eyes episode on Maid Cafes in Akihabara: mn3AE mn3AE mn3AE

Now Its Time To Shop!

American DollarJapanese Yen $ $ $ $1009, $ Visit Yahoo Finance to find the latest exchange rate for the Japanese Yen:

Japanese Shopping Sites Shibuya 109 – Narumiya International (site is Japanese only – a great place to see how much clothes in Japan cost and convert from Yen to Dollar) Harajuku Lovers (American Company)-

Great Websites for Culture and Fashion Shibuya 109 Gals: Japanese Streets, follow the fashion trends of Japanese youth: Japanese Lifestyle: Harajuku Subculture and Fashion Information: le.html le.html le.html

Vocabulary ward ward Shibuya Shibuya Harajuku Harajuku boutique boutique trend trend kawaii kawaii karisuma tenin karisuma tenin cosplay cosplay manga manga anime anime maid café maid café traditional traditional ganguro ganguro

Bibliography Kwest for Kawaii. Kate Drake. June 18, ,00.html Kwest for Kawaii. Kate Drake. June 18, ,00.html 022,00.html 022,00.html Japan Lifestyle: ya_109.htm ya_109.htm ya_109.htm Japanese Streets: Yahoo Finance: Wikipedia:

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