Pop Culture... The Fashion Scene

Although widely covered in books, magazines, and plenty of photography books, The Japanese fashion scene is something worth delving into over and over again. Since fashion trends and fads change faster than the seasons, there is always something to look at and critique. In fact, the next Tokyo Fashion Week is coming up this month from March 23rd to the 29th, where new textures, fabrics, and styles will be announced to Japan and the rest of the world.


It isn't enough to look at the wacky styles that come out of Harajuku and call it a day. There are plenty of interesting things going on in Japanese fashion that are not quite as noticeable as a bright pink Lolita dress, or the dark blacks, blues, and purples of the gothic lolita style. I have found that even the stores that carry these different styles wear what they sell themselves. Like the above picture shows, this store in Hep5 mall (in Umeda) had a definite Indian theme to is. Scarfs were draped from the walls, which were adorned with the same types of images and much of the clothing was modeled off of how saris look on a human form or designs and colors inspired by them. Much of the jewelry even had an Indian flair to it.


Another very popular style among young people (especially in the Kansai region, according to the following link) is the African/Jamaican/hiphop influenced style of clothing and appearance. Hip hop, r&b, and rap music have seen a large increase in popularity within the United States and with this, much of the musical pop culture sent over from the US includes this type of music and style. As Mica Powers states on the site Kansai Scene (link above),

"Mention the name of literary great Junichiro Tanizaki to any young Japanese person and the chances are they will have only the vaguest notion of who you are talking about. Mention Beyonce or Bob Marley and they are right with you. Take a walk down pretty well any street in the Kansai and you see the local kids are dressed in the latest hip hop gear or in shirts display-ing Jamaican great Bob Marley, all the while listening to the latest hip hop music from America and Jamaica."

"The imitation of certain elements of Black culture is present in Japan because it is popular in the American media at the current time.” While this is definitely the case, and it is very logical that people in one foreign country use the media of another country to get up-to-date fashion clues, she also says, “However, I am not sure if the Japanese have a true understanding of what these images represent and their impact and role in Western society as a dominant subculture...I think the imitations of rap music are amusing, as most of the 'rap' here is based on love, whereas a lot of American rap is born out of strife, discrimination, etc." (Kansai Scene Magainzine).

Related Article: BBC News Japan Grows Its Own Hip Hop

Perceptions of Japanese College Students...

The population of Japanese college students that come to universities like Kansai Gaidai are, what stereotypes might call, differently minded. What I have come to perceive as the average Japanese college student, is one who has their mind set on one job, one job that they will have until they retire, and that is the only thing they are working toward.

However, today and especially at schools with an international language focus, a lot more Japanese college students are looking abroad for careers. Minds have seemed to turn from in to out and a lot more students seem eager to leave Japan and investigate what the rest of the world has to offer. If they don't have any intention of leaving the country, however, coming to a school that has an international focus gives Japanese students an opportunity to study with and speak with people of cultures near and far from Japan and its own culture.

Although this picture is silly, I'm trying to prove a point. (Although some may know him, I'll leave out his name..) My friend here is one Japanese student who really surprised me when I first met him. He takes class with the exchange students because he plans on studying abroad in the US next year, but has also been taking Spanish. Whenever he speaks about his own culture, he says that he is tired of it, and wants to go some place new and fresh. Most of the time these complaints are jokingly made, other times they seem a little more serious.

Despite the outward turned gaze of many Japanese college students these days, people like my friend still surprise me. They don't just want to explore other places, they want to get away from the culture that raised them. I also know of many exchange students that feel the same way about their own cultures and study abroad to get away from what they are tired or fed-up with. Both these Japanese students and exchange students can see the flaws with their culture, and want to try something else; perhaps something that they feel works better than what they are used to.

The only reason it seems so much more surprising from Japanese students is because of long-standing stereotypes. With values emphasized on family and community, internationality and globalization don't seem to always have a place among these other, stronger values. It is nice to see these stereotypes challenged by open-minded college students, ready to brave the world and see what they will find. Changing views of the outside world can only strengthen the move toward global acceptance and a more global community.

My Hometown Hirakata...

When thinking of a typical Japanese landscape, I have to admit that sometimes my mind jumps directly to the tight, and narrow streets in a seemingly over-crowded neighborhood. The beautiful snowcapped mountains, rice fields and streams come second.

So when my host family and I drove home for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to see small rice paddies and vegetable fields dotting the landscape, hidden among the tightly packed together apartment complexes and tiny houses.


In doing a little research, I found out that many towns accumulated a number of these part-time farmers around WWII to help stabilize the price of rice and get more food out to the Japanese people. In 1950 there were 6.18 million farming households, 3.09 million of them full-time. Today, 23% of farmers are full-time, 16% are part-time type 1 (primarily farm) and 62% are part-time type 2 (primarily don't farm) (The Tokyo Foundation). All farmers were a part of an organization called the JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperative Associations) which marketed the crops and began as small organizations.


The addition of these small rice and vegetable fields scattered about suburban towns is quite beautiful and really significant. Farming food for people is not only a difficult and time-consuming job, but its something that not many people want to do. The number of farmers in the US has decreased quickly over the last few decades, to a point where the government must pay farmers to continue doing their jobs. In Japan, you can physically see the evidence of farming everywhere. This tradition has continued for generations and has left Japan beautiful and alive.

Here I am providing a link to a Japanese farming blog (in japanese) which has some lovely pictures, and here is a link to an interesting site about Satoyama, Japan's hidden water garden. A BBC special was done on this area of Japan and a youtube video can be accessed through this site about Satoyama.

(From Satoyama: Japan's Amazing Rice Fields and Farms)

Impressions, but not necessarily the first....

To have a first impression, one should be encountering an object, person, or place for the first time. This first encounter leaves a mark on one's mind and, thus, one has an impression of the first time they have been to, or seen this person, place, or thing. I have now been to Japan three times and I don't think that this post will be about a first impression. I have long since had my first impression of Japan. However, because of this, I have had some time to look at Japan, and find things that have surprised and interested me. Instead of first impressions, I will enlighten you with a couple of break-throughs of mine. My first break-through came while sitting and eating dinner with my host family. We were watching a quiz show where famous actors and singers sat at brightly colored desks and buzzed in after various clues and video clips had been shown. I asked my host mom what was going on, because the language was moving too quickly for me to catch much. She told me that they were answering a question about a business man's hotel where the bath doubled as a toilet. I'd always thought Japan was resourceful and practical, but this was bringing it to an extreme, and almost unsanitary point. Putting aside personal preference, however, I do appreciate Japan's innovativeness and move towards a greener, more compact future. The fact that my host mother uses the finished bath water to wash our clothes everyday is smart and totally resourceful! Why through away nearly clean water? It's not like our clothing needs to be washed in purified water. Most water touches soil anyway. Its simple stuff like that, that other countries don't think about or would consider unsanitary but actually saves some of our quickly depleting resources. My second break-through also happened at dinner time with my host family. We were watching a show where celebrities sit around, watch video clips and talk about various topics (pretty standard it seems) when the host brought out some food that was being shown in the video clips. Of course, we all followed suit in saying "ah, that looks good..." and only once I had said it did I realize.... Japan has a strange obsession with food. Every talk show, music show, news show has someone make interesting food, talk about it, and then everyone on the show eats it and exclaims about how amazing it is. Not only that, but food is made into more than just plastic replicas like in restaurant windows or for children to play house with. Bags, keychains, and pencil cases are made in the shape of food or with food plastered all over them. Food is even alive here! I always thought "How cute! A strawberry with a mouth and eyes!" but really.. it's kind of interesting. In a country where food, especially fruits and vegetables, are so expensive, they use the image of food on everything. People dangle food from their cellular phones! Although I don't have much of a conclusion for this point, I do find it something worth noticing. Kanako Enomoto on a food show in 2002 Model Kanako Enomoto, appears on a food show in Japan in 2002. (from youtube.com)