1.
Kogal
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Kogal is a Japanese fashion culture that involves schoolgirls wearing an outfit based on their uniform, but with very short skirts. The short skirts are worn irrespective of the season, the girls may also wear loose socks, scarves and have dyed hair. The word kogal is anglicized from kogyaru, a contraction of kōkōsei gyaru, the girls refer to themselves as gyaru, although this word is applied to several other fashion looks as well. Aside from the miniskirt or microskirt, and the socks, kogals favor platform boots, makeup. They may also dye their hair brown and get artificial suntans and they have a distinctive slang peppered with English words. They are often, but not necessarily, enrolled students, centers of kogal culture include the Harajuku and Shibuya districts of Tokyo, in particular Shibuyas 109 Building. Pop singer Namie Amuro promoted the style, Kogals are avid users of photo booths, with most visiting at least once a week, according to non-scientific polls. While critics condemned the gyaru as shallow, materialistic, and devoted to conspicuous consumption, admirers describe them as kindhearted, active women in exuberant health. The word kogal is a contraction of kōkōsei gyaru and it originated as a code used by disco bouncers to distinguish adults from minors. The term is not used by the girls it refers to and they call themselves gyaru, a Japanese pronunciation of the English word gal. The term gyaru was first popularized in 1972 by an ad for a brand of jeans. In the 1980s, a gyaru was a dressed woman. When written 子, ko means young woman, so kogyaru is sometimes understood in the sense of young gal, however, if this was the meaning originally intended, wakai gyaru would be more logical. Kogals have been accused of conspicuous consumption, living off their parents, critics decry their materialism as reflecting a larger psychological or spiritual emptiness in modern Japanese life. Some kogals support their lifestyle with allowances from wealthy parents, living a parasite single existence that grates against traditional principles of duty and industry. Others have charged that the phenomenon is less about the girls and their fashions than a media practice to fetishize school uniforms. I wish that I were in school at a different time. Now, with kogal being such an issue in Japan, nobody can see me for me and they only see me as kogal, like the ones they see on TV
2.
Japanese street fashion
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There are many styles of street fashion in Japan, created from a mix of both local and foreign labels. Some of these styles are extreme and avant-garde, similar to the haute couture seen on European catwalks. The rise and fall of many of these trends has been chronicled by Shoichi Aoki since 1997 in the fashion magazine Fruits, in 2003, Japanese hip-hop, which had long been present among underground Tokyos club scene, influenced the mainstream fashion industry. The popularity of the music was so influential that Tokyos youth imitated their favorite hip hop stars from the way they dress with oversized clothes to tanned skin, though the styles have changed over the years, street fashion is still prominent in Tokyo today. Young adults can often be found wearing subculture attire in large urban districts such as Harajuku, Aoyama, Ginza, Odaiba, Shinjuku. Containing many different themes within its boundaries, Lolita has become one of the larger, the more well-known styles within Lolita fashion are as follows, Gothic Lolita - is Lolita with a heavy influence from the Eastern and Victorian Goth style. Often characterized by dark colors, crosses, bats and spiders, Victorian iron gates and architectural designs are also often seen in dress prints. Skirts are usually worn knee length with petticoats beneath for volume, blouses or shirts are lace-trimmed or ruffled in the Victorian style. Knee length socks with boots, bonnets, brooches, and a parasol finish out this style of Lolita, Sweet Lolita - is the most childlike style, mostly characterized by baby animals, fairy tale themes and innocent, childlike attire. It was originally inspired by Victorian childrens clothing and Alice in Wonderland, hello Kitty, Rilakkuma and other cute pop culture characters are popular among the Sweet lolitas. Pastel colors are used, as well as other muted colors like black and dark reds, large headbows, cute purses, elegant parasols and stuffed animals are popular accessories for Sweet Lolita. Punk Lolita - An experimental style, mixing the influences of Punk with Lolita and it can sometimes look deconstructed or crazy, while keeping most of the Lolita silhouette. It is more business-like and focuses on light colors such as, blue, green, kodona, a. k. a. boystyle and ouji, is a more masculine counterpart of lolita, influenced by Victorian boys clothing. Prince pants, which are short capri-style pants that are cut off the knee, usually some sort of detail are commonly worn with masculine blouses, top hats. Gyaru, which is known as ganguro, which is actually a subcategory of gyaru, is a type of Japanese street fashion that originated in the 1970s. Gyaru focuses on style, dwelling on man-made beauty. Gyaru is also inspired by Western fashion. The ganguro style of Japanese street fashion became popular among Japanese girls in the early 1990s, ganguro falls into the larger subculture of gyaru fashion
3.
Ganguro
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Ganguro is an alternative fashion trend among young Japanese women that started in the mid-1990s, distinguished by a dark tan and contrasting make-up liberally applied by fashionistas. Ganguro instead tanned their skin, bleached their hair and used a lot of makeup in unusual ways. Ganguro has a connection to Japanese folklore of ghosts and demons who are depicted with a similar such as those in kabuki. This connection is further underlined by the offshoot style yamanba, named after a witch in Japanese folklore. The ganguro trend faded out afterwards, although its influence can be observed in yamanba and manba styles, ganguro appeared as a new fashion style in Japan in the early 1990s and was prevalent mostly among young women. In ganguro fashion, a deep tan is combined with hair dyed in shades of orange to blonde, black ink is used as eye-liner and white concealer is used as lipstick and eyeshadow. False eyelashes, plastic facial gems, and pearl powder are added to this. Platform shoes and brightly coloured outfits complete the ganguro look, also typical of ganguro fashion are tie-dyed sarongs, miniskirts, stickers on the face, and many bracelets, rings, and necklaces. Ganguro falls into the subculture of gyaru, a slang term used for various groups of young women. This is their attempt at individuality, self-expression, and freedom, in defiance of school standards. Fashion magazines like Egg and Ageha have had a influence on the ganguro. Other popular ganguro magazines include Popteen and Ego System, the ganguro culture is often linked with para para, a Japanese dance style. However, most para para dancers are not ganguro, and most ganguro are not para para dancers, though there are many who are ganguro or gal and dance para para. One of the most famous early ganguro girls was known as Buriteri, Egg made her a star by frequently featuring her in its pages during the height of the ganguro craze. After modelling and advertising for the Shibuya tanning salon Blacky, social pressure, yamanba and manba are styles which developed from ganguro. Stickers on the face died out shortly after 2004 and, for a while, manba then became more extreme, with multicoloured and usually synthetic hair. Manba in 2008 saw a darker tan, and no facial stickers, hair was usually neon/bright colours, with pink being a favourite. Wool emulating dreadlocks, extensions, and clips were worn to make hair appear longer, clothing remained the same, although leis were worn less frequently
4.
Contact lens
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A contact lens, or simply contact, is a thin lens placed directly on the surface of the eye. Contact lenses are considered medical devices and can be worn to correct vision, in 2004, it was estimated that 125 million people use contact lenses worldwide, including 28 to 38 million in the United States. In 2010, worldwide market for contact lenses was estimated at $6.1 billion, multiple analysts estimated that the global market for contact lenses would reach $11.7 billion by 2015. As of 2010, the age of contact lens wearers globally was 31 years old. People choose to wear contact lenses for many reasons, aesthetics and cosmetics are the main motivating factors for people who want to avoid wearing glasses or to change the appearance of their eyes. Others wear contact lenses for functional or optical reasons, when compared with spectacles, contact lenses typically provide better peripheral vision, and do not collect moisture or perspiration, this makes them ideal for sports and other outdoor activities. Contact lens wearers can also wear sunglasses, goggles, or other eyewear of their choice without having to fit them with prescription lenses or worry about compatibility with glasses. Additionally, there are such as keratoconus and aniseikonia that are typically corrected better with contact lenses than with glasses. The size of the contact lens market is likely to due to the increasing occurrence of eye related conditions such as astigmatism. The other drivers are increasing population and the desire to make fashion statements, by the end of 2020, the value of the contact lens market is predicted to reach $13.5 billion. Neither idea was practically implementable in da Vincis time and he did not suggest his idea be used for correcting vision, as he was more interested in learning about the mechanisms of accommodation of the eye. Descartes proposed another idea in 1636, a tube filled with liquid placed in direct contact with the cornea. The protruding end was to be composed of glass, shaped to correct vision, however. In 1801, Thomas Young made a pair of contact lenses based on Descartes model. He used wax to affix water-filled lenses to his eyes, which neutralized its refractive power and he then corrected for it with another pair of lenses. However, like da Vincis, Youngs device was not intended to correct refraction errors and this enabled the manufacture of lenses that, for the first time, conformed to the actual shape of the eye. It was not until 1887 that German glassblower F. E. Muller produced the first eye covering to be seen through, in 1888, German ophthalmologist Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick constructed and fitted the first successful contact lens. These lenses were made from heavy blown glass and were 18–21 mm in diameter, Fick filled the empty space between cornea/callosity and glass with a dextrose solution
5.
Gyaru
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Gyaru is a Japanese transliteration of the English word girl. Its usage peaked in the 2000s and has gradually declined, the term gradually drifted to apply to an older group, whose seeming lack of interest in work or marriage gained the word a childish image. It is now used almost interchangeably with kogal, Gyaru subculture is still a large influence in Japans fashion economy with gyaru brands branching out and becoming more accessible in rural areas. In Tokyo, more often not, a shopping center at each main train station is dedicated to offering the newest and trendiest items from popular Gal brands. Some brands are also reaching overseas by having their items easily accessible in webshops offering world-wide shipping services, a Gal Circle is a meet up of gals to hang out together. Gyaru fashion and style varies greatly dependent on the subcategory, although in general the term describes the fashion and glamour reminiscent of Brigitte Bardot with tanned skin and blonde hair. The term is often applied to those imitating the bihaku glamour style created by Ayumi Hamasaki. Styles derived from gyaru are often referred to by their subcategory name, Gyaru fashion is a type of Japanese street fashion that originated in the 1970s. Its popularity peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s, Gyaru fashion is typically characterized by having heavily bleached or dyed hair, highly decorated nails, and dramatic makeup. The makeup typically consists of dark eyeliner and fake eyelashes used in ways intended to make the eyes appear larger, clothing pieces for gyaru fashion differ depending on which gyaru style the individual chooses. Popular gyaru models, icons and idols include Tsubasa Masuwaka, Kumiko Funayama, Rie Matsuoka, Hikari Shiina, Satomi Yakuwa, Sayoko Ozaki, there are various subcategories of gals depending on the choice of fashion, and also gender. Gyaru-kei, Basically the default gyaru style and it is an umbrella term for the many subcategories or themes of gal styles. Bibinba, This look usually includes a lot of gold, and it was said to be a joke in Egg magazine about this style, and was not a serious style. Banba, Banba is a form of manba. Banbas wear less white makeup than manbas, they use more glitter. Banbas wear more extreme-looking types of false eyelashes, and colored contact lenses, banbas wear darker colors than manbas, and sometimes dress in club wear. Hime gyaru, Also known as Hime-kei and it is one of the more over the top and also one of the most expensive style of dress of all of the categories. The hime style is based on the Rococo era
6.
Rococo
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Rococo artists and architects used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. By the end of the 18th century, Rococo was largely replaced by the Neoclassic style. In 1835 the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo usually covers the kind of ornament, style and design associated with Louis XVs reign and it includes therefore, all types of art from around the middle of the 18th century in France. The word is seen as a combination of the French rocaille and coquilles, the term may also be a combination of the Italian word barocco and the French rocaille and may describe the refined and fanciful style that became fashionable in parts of Europe in the 18th century. The Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts led some critics to say that the style was frivolous or merely modish, when the term was first used in English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning old-fashioned. While there is some debate about the historical significance of the style to art in general. Italian architects of the late Baroque/early Rococo were wooed to Catholic Germany, Bohemia and Austria by local princes, an exotic but in some ways more formal type of Rococo appeared in France where Louis XIVs succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the long reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves. These elements are obvious in the designs of Nicolas Pineau. During the Régence, court life moved away from Versailles and this change became well established, first in the royal palace. The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses of Louis XVs reign. The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France, the style had spread beyond architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture, exemplified by the works of Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. The Rococo style was spread by French artists and engraved publications, william Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. Though not intentionally referencing the movement, he argued in his Analysis of Beauty that the lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace. The development of Rococo in Great Britain is considered to have connected with the revival of interest in Gothic architecture early in the 18th century. The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality, Blondel decried the ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants in contemporary interiors. By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order, in Germany, late 18th century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke, and this phase is sometimes referred to as Zopfstil
7.
Gyaruo
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Gyaruo are a sub-group of modern Japanese youth culture. They are the equivalent of the gyaru. The o suffix that is added to the word, is one reading of the Kanji for male, Gyaruo are characterised by their deep tans, dyed hair, party lifestyle and a liking for all different types of trance music including para-para dancing music, Eurobeat, etc. Most major cities in Japan will have certain streets or districts within the city centre where Gyaruo, using the two biggest Gyaruo culture influencing cities as example, in Tokyo two of the popular places to hang out are around the Shibuya or Shinjuku areas. In Osaka, Amerikamura, which is shortened to Ame-mura. In 2005, Tokyu Hands opened up a branch of their popular girls gyaru fashion shopping complex,109. Two floors of the Shibuya located 109-② store are dedicated to Gyaruo brands such as Vanquish, Jack Rose, Varosh, Diavlo, Roi Franc, the rise in gyaruo fashion has led to openings of other 109-② stores featuring male brands in Fukuoka, Machida, Shizuoka and Nagoya. The 109-② in Shibuya has since been renamed 109-mens, with all floors dedicated to gyaruo fashion instead of the initial two, Gyaruo fashion can be seen in certain magazines such as Mens Egg, Mens Roses or Mens Egg Bitter and a fairly new magazine called Mens Digger. Then there is the popular Mens Knuckle magazine which is aimed at wearers of the more mature looking onii-kei fashion, hosts, Mens Egg is the most popular magazine amongst gyaruo, and is often described as the gyaruo bible. It is this magazine that has arguably had the largest influence on the development and constant change of gyaruo lifestyle, Mens Egg magazine which is published monthly, has everything from the latest fashion to articles about the sex lives of the readers. It was this last part that got the magazine a temporary ban by the government, due to complaints by parents, the events which are called Mens Egg Night, is often shortened to just mennai. Since gyaruo do not fit in with the normal Japanese tradition of blending into the crowd because of their appearance, the online blogs of the top Mens Egg magazine models The official website for the popular Mens Knuckle magazine Yukihide Sawamotos Blog Kazuaki Oishi Blog
8.
BBC News
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BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the worlds largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, the service maintains 50 foreign news bureaux with more than 250 correspondents around the world. James Harding has been Director of News and Current Affairs since April 2013, the departments annual budget is in excess of £350 million, it has 3,500 staff,2,000 of whom are journalists. BBC News domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London. Through the BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England, as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland, all nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes. As with all media outlets, though, it has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum. The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station 2LO on 14 November 1922, on Easter weekend in 1930, this reliance on newspaper wire services left the radio news service with no information to report. The BBC gradually gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, however, it could not broadcast news before 6 PM until World War II. Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, a weekly Childrens Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers. The network began simulcasting its radio news on television in 1946, televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. The publics interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth IIs coronation in 1953 and it is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radios audience of 12 million for the first time. Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission and that year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955. This was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a commentary by John Snagge. It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with visible facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall, mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises – mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherds Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs with it. It was from here that the first Panorama, a new programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953. On 28 October 1957, the Today programme, a radio programme, was launched in central London on the Home Service. In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs and he set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under his predecessor, Tahu Hole
9.
Egg (magazine)
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Egg was a style magazine for gyaru fashion, distributed in Japan. It featured photos of girls and synopses of their tastes. The magazine also usually had photos of the newest fashions, where to buy them, latest hairstyles, cell phones and it also had candid photos of ganguro girls on the streets of Japan, similar to Fruits magazine. Egg had its own models which starred in every magazine, due to the decline of Gyaru popularity, the magazine shut down with the last issue on 31 May 2014. Along with the monthly issues, Egg also released special magazine issues. One was a beauty magazine called eggs Beauty which used to be released each year. Egg typically used the models for each issue of the magazine. Every so often, these older generation of models left the magazine, some girls who left the magazine returned to a normal life outside of the media world and were very rarely seen in the public eye again. Notable Egg models Rumi Itabashi and Kaoru Watanabe who were part of the magazine for a time have since left the magazine and have had children. Egg usually recruited new models for the magazine while finding girls for Street Snaps, usually in the famous Center Gai in Shibuya and this appeared in the Street Groove section of the magazine which is a mix of random girls and Egg models. After a while of appearing in Street Snaps and small features and sections, girls could debut as more regular and full-time models for the magazine. Models for the magazine had public blogs which were followed by fans, Egg had a few other counterpart magazines, including one for men called MensEGG, and also one for teenage boys called Mens Egg Youth. These magazines again had their own models who feature in every issue, MensEGG had a more grown-up and rockier style compared to Egg which mixed both cute and sexy styles, and Mens Egg Youth had a more colourful and extreme style. A sideline from Egg magazine was EggMgg TV which was an internet programme hosted by some of the models from MensEGG
10.
MensEGG
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MensEGG was a style magazine distributed in Japan aimed at young men. It was a counterpart of Egg magazine, which focused on Gyaru-oh fashions – it was the gyaru-oh bible, there is also Mens Egg Bitter magazine, aimed at Gyaruo aged 23 and above. Mens Egg was established in 1999, the image of the magazine revolved around Japanese working-class trends, appealing to young men mostly under 20. It draws inspiration from Japanese yankee culture, also with techno and this style is often looked down on by some other Japanese, who associate it with juvenile delinquency, and also, Inakamono. Apart from fashion, the magazine featured information for young teenagers, such as advice on picking up girls, dating. The magazine also contained information about club events, Mens Egg ceased publication in October 2013
11.
Happie Nuts
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Happie Nuts was a gal fashion magazine published monthly in Japan by Inforest Publishing. Targeted at women in their teens and early 20s, Happie Nuts was highly oriented toward the style of oneh-gal. Based in Tokyo, it was in circulation between 2004 and 2016, Happie Nuts was first published in November 2004 as the successor to Happie, a fashion magazine targeted at female teenagers. Happie Nuts spawned its special edition, Koakuma & Nuts, in October 2005, in 2014 Happie Nuts was closed, but was restarted in July 2015. However, the magazine ended publication again in March 2016
12.
Koakuma Ageha
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Koakuma Ageha is a gyaru fashion and lifestyle magazine published monthly in Japan. Targeted at females in their teens and 20s, Koakuma Ageha caters to the styles of Agejo. Sociologist Shinji Miyadai has described this magazine as a textbook for hostesses, some describe this magazine as the bible for hostesses. Koakuma Ageha ceased publication in April 2014 following the bankruptcy of its parent company and it restarted in April 2015, on another publishing company Neko Publishing. Koakuma Ageha was first published under the name Koakuma & Nuts in October 2005 with a 27-year-old woman, Hisako Nakajo, circulation was then around 220,000 but climbed to 350,000 by the end of 2008. Hisako Nakajo left Koakuma Ageha, and its parent company Inforest Publishing, Koakuma Agehas exclusive models are called Age-mo, and its irregularly appearing models are called Age-jo. Most of them are active hostesses from various cities of the all over the islands of Japan. Unlike the ones in Happie Nuts, Ageha models are not required to be dark-skinned and their unique styles of fashion is called Ageha-kei, which has become quite popular among women in their teens and 20s. Some explain the typical Ageha-kei style as a form of the gyaru style, grown in the cradle of the hostess club scene. The Ageha style, as a lifestyle, is noted for its tendency to be local-oriented and this is considered quite unique for a Japanese fashion magazine, as Japanese fashion magazines are in general relentlessly light-hearted from beginning to end. Ageha models often garner an almost cult-like popularity and attract large amounts of media attention, eri Momoka, known as Momoeri, is an early example, and just like Momoka, who has her own brand Moery, some Ageha models individually launch their own fashion brands. Sumire launched her own fashion brand Divas and often introduced herself as the Divas designer during the last days of her life, shizuka Mutoh, an irregularly appearing Ageha model, launched her own fashion brand Rady in 2008 and its monthly net earnings reached $1 million in April 2011. Ane Ageha was first published in November 2010 under the name Oneh-san Ageha as an edition of Koakuma Ageha. Ane Ageha is a fashion and cosmetic magazine, and its target audience is females in their late twenties. Kimono Ageha was first published in December 2010 as an edition of Koakuma Ageha. It is an irregularly published magazine specialized in kimono, and is modeled by Koakuma Ageha models, I Love Mama «stylized as I LOVE mama» was first published in September 2008 under the name Mama Nuts × Ageha as a special co-edition of Koakuma Ageha with Happie Nuts. Mama Nuts × Ageha changed its name to I Love Mama, I Love Mama is a magazine especially for gyaru women who have gotten pregnant and become mothers — the first-ever magazine dedicated to gyaru-mamas. Koakuma Ageha official Ane Ageha official Kimono Ageha official
13.
PopSister
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PopSister is a Japanese monthly gal-shibuya-kei-oriented fashion magazine published by Kadokawa Publishing & Co. Launched in 2010 as the sister magazine of Popteen, PopSister is targeted at females in their teens. The original PopSister, titled Scream, was published in 2009 as an edition of Popteen magazine. The first authentic issue of PopSister was published on April 17,2010 and it featured seven exclusive models, Tsubasa Masuwaka, Kana Hoshino, Yui Kanno, Jun Komori, Tomoko Higuchi, Eri Aoki, and Wei Son
14.
Popteen
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Popteen is a monthly teenage fashion magazine published by the Kadokawa Haruki Corporation in Japan. The first issue was published on 1 October 1980 by Kadokawa Shoten, later issues were published by Asuka Shinsha who bought the magazine for 200 million yen. In 1994 the magazine was bought by the Kadokawa Haruki Corporation for 600 million yen, Popteen is one of Asias top fashion magazines. The magazine is published in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand, both Ayumi Hamasaki and Kumiko Funayama have been featured on the cover 19 times, Hamasaki first appearing in 2000 and Funayama in 2008. Other artists who have appeared on the cover include Kumi Koda and Namie Amuro, as well as US artists like Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Fergie, the magazine is famous for including doku-moderu where the readers of Popteen are able to become models in the magazine. It is also notable for its coverage of Gyaru fashions, one of the most popular Popteen models is Tsubasa Masuwaka, who in December 2007 married male fashion model Naoki Umeda. She announced on her blog that she had graduated from Popteen, in April 2010 Popteens older sister magazine PopSister was officially launched. com US website GALs POP by Popteen Japanese website Popteen Taiwan Taiwanese Website
15.
Ranzuki
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Ranzuki is a fashion magazine published monthly in Japan by Bunka-sha Publishing & Co. A gal magazine, Ranzuki mainly targets women in their teens, Ranzuki was first published in August 2000 with the name Ranking Daisuki. Ranzuki later spawned its special edition which became independent as Jelly in 2006, Ranzuki features its regularly appearing models as Rs and all of them usually appear on the magazine with their simple nicknames. The notable ones have included Yumi Yamanaka, Aya Suzuki, Takami Tsuha, Namino Hata, Serika Nakayama, Yoko Kunieda, Nicole Abe, Yui Minemura, Rika Mamiya, Natsumi Saito, Arisa Kamada, Rei Yasui. Some of them have moved to the sister magazine Jelly, including Maya Mori, Naomi Arai, Yuki Yamamoto, Mai Miyagi, some have moved to Vanilla Girl, a fashion magazine published by Bunka-sha the same publisher
16.
I Love Mama
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I Love Mama «stylized as I LOVE mama» was a gyaru fashion and lifestyle magazine published monthly in Japan by Inforest Publishing. Originally named Mama Nuts × Ageha, I Love Mama was established as an edition of two gyaru magazines, the hostess-targeted Koakuma Ageha magazine and dark-skin obsessed Happie Nuts magazine. I Love Mama was considered a magazine, as it was a magazine especially for gyaru-mama females, consisting of the likes of housekeeping tips, parenting tips. Described as a magazine, it has been the highest-selling gyaru-mama magazine ever since its launch in 2008. There was some Western interest in the magazine, and it could be purchased from Amazon, Mama Nuts × Ageha changed its name to I Love Mama, becoming monthly in April 2009. Circulation reached 200,000 by October 2009, following the closure of Inforest Publishing I Love Mama ended publication in 2014. The most notable trait of the models appearing in I Love Mama is that most of them appear in the magazine with their children, the children in the magazine are called the chibiko. Exclusive models are called the Love-mo. Irregularly-appearing models are called the Love-mama
17.
Blenda
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For the Polish village, see Blenda, Podlaskie Voivodeship. Blenda is also the name of a Norwegian laundry soap manufactured by Lilleborg, Blenda is the heroine of a Swedish legend from Småland. Blenda led the women of Värend in an attack on a pillaging Danish army. According to the legend, the took place in the time of Alle, King of the Geats. King Alle had marshalled not only the West Geats, but also the South Geats of Småland, when the Danes learned of Smålands precarious situation, they took advantage of it and attacked the defenseless small lands. Blenda was a woman of noble descent in the Konga Hundred and she decided to send the cross to rally all the womenfolk in the hundreds of Konga, Albo, Kinnevald. The women armies assembled on the Brávellir, which according to Smålandish tradition is located in Värend, the women approached the Danes and told them how much they were impressed with the Danish men. They invited the men to a banquet where they were provided with food, after a long evening, the Danish warriors fell asleep and the women killed every single one of them with axes and staffs. When King Alle returned, he bestowed new rights on the women, the five hundreds were combined into the land of Värend, which means the defense, since it was a bulwark for Geatland. Blendas village was called Värnslanda and a location near the ground was called Bländinge. The first printed text, where the legend has been connected with the inheritance rights and he wrote that the inheritance rights were awarded by King Hakon Ring to the women after the Battle of Brávellir, in which they had shown valour against Harald Wartooth. The legend appears in embellished form in the various pleas made in the 1680s and 1690s in order to defend the equal inheritance, the final form probably comes from local historian, Petter Rudebeck since both the oldest editions of it remind of Rudebecks methodology and language. Petter Rudebeck gathered and wrote down peasant customs, practices, myths, in 1813, the legend was rendered in the romantic poem Blenda in the first major poem by Erik Johan Stagnelius. So called Shieldmaidens, three hundred soldiers were recorded having served during the great Battle of Bråvalla in 750. Several attempts have been made to support or discredit the legends historicity, Sven Lagerbring proposed that it taken place during King Sweyn III of Denmarks attack on Sweden in the 1150s. Olof von Dalin conjectured that the event had taken place in the 1270s when King Eric V of Denmark attacked Småland, carl Johan Schlyter suggested that the legend was invented to explain why the women of Värend had equal share in the inheritance with the men. Nordisk familjebok Lagerbring, Sven Swea Rikes Historia, Ifrån De Äldsta Tider Til De Närwarande Henrikson, Alf Antikens historier, Rom OCLC185229027 von Dalin, Olaf Svea rikes historia
18.
Koda Kumi
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Kumiko Kōda, known professionally as Koda Kumi, is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs. Having debuted in 2000 with the single Take Back, Koda gained fame for her single, Real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba. Though her early releases presented a conservative, quiet image, since as early as 2003 Koda has adopted a sexier, because of this image, she has become a fashion leader among young women, setting trends such as the ero-kakkoii style. She has also won many awards such as, the Best Jeanist Award. Since the rise in her popularity, Koda has lent her face, in 2006 and 2007, Oricon named Koda as the top selling artist of the year. Jonathan Ross has called her the Christina Aguilera of Japan, while many also compare her career to that of Britney Spears, Koda has sold more than 15 million physical records in Japan alone, making her the 18th best selling solo Japanese female artist of all-time. Koda was born into a family of musicians and her grandfather was a Shakuhachi master and her mother was a Koto teacher, she is the older sister of Misono, current solo artist and former lead singer of Day After Tomorrow. Inspired by her mother, who performed in bars, Koda. During her second year of high school Koda auditioned in Avex’s Dream Audition and she was then signed onto the Avex sub-label Rhythm Zone. Kodas first semi-biographical book, Koda-shiki was officially described as a story about a girl who was filled with inferiority complex pursuing her way. Koda debuted on December 6,2000, with the single Take Back, it was followed by Trust Your Love, Color of Soul, and So into You. Trust Your Love and Color of Soul were both Top 30 singles, the reached number 18 on the chart and became Kodas first Top Twenty single. Using the stage name Koda, Koda recorded Take Back and Trust Your Love in English, Take Back peaked at number 18 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart, Trust Your Love had more success, reaching the top spot on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart. The single also charted on the Hot Singles Sales chart and Hot Dance Club Play chart, at #19 and #35, respectively. After the September 11,2001 attacks, Koda recorded the charity single The Meaning of Peace with Korean singer BoA as part of Avexs Song+Nation project to raise funds for charity. In March 2002, Koda released her debut album Affection under Rhythm Zone, after the release of Affection, Koda released three singles. Love Across the Ocean, Maze, and real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba, Love Across the Ocean and Maze peaked at the number 19 and 25 positions. Koda achieved minor success with real Emotion/1000 no Kotoba, which peaked at number 3 after three weeks on the charts and she released her second album, Grow into One in March 2003
19.
Namie Amuro
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Namie Amuro —formerly known as Namie Maruyama in her personal life— is a Japanese singer, dancer, fashion model, actress and businesswoman. Born in Naha, Okinawa, Amuro debuted in music as an idol with the band Super Monkeys at age 14, although majority of their releases were unsuccessful in Japan, Amuros venturing in modelling fashion and acting helped the group gain attention on their single TRY ME 〜私を信じて〜. Retitling themselves as Namie Amuro with Super Monkey’s to achieve success, they released a studio album. She signed with avex trax in 1995 to released her debut single “Body Feels EXIT and she achieved large success with her single CAN YOU CELEBRATE. Which is still the single from a female artist in Japan. Transitioning into westernised R&B music, she released her third album GENIUS2000, as she was beginning to mold her well-known signature R&B sound, sales started to decline by the release of her fifth album STYLE. But in 2007, PLAY, her eight album, was a period of her resurgence with sales. She then moved from R&B, onto electronic music with her tenth album Uncontrolled. Alongside this, her compilation albums 181920 and BEST FICTION are two of the best-selling greatest hits albums in Japan. She has been recognized at several ceremonies, including being a recipient at the World Music Awards, Japan Record Awards, Japan Gold Disc Awards. Recording to calculated results by the Recording Industry Association of Japan and her album SWEET19 BLUES was the best-selling album of Japan, until it was released by several more entries during most recent years. Amuro was born to Emiko Taira, and an undisclosed Japanese father, in Naha and she is one of three children by Taira and her father. Taira had divorced when Amuro was four years old, and raised her three children solely in Okinawa, Taira worked as a nursery school employee and bar hostess to support her three children. Although she had no ambition to become a singer, she was discovered at age 12, Amuro was scouted by Masayuki Makino, the owner of Okinawa Actors School, a performing arts school, and eventually enrolled there. Two years later, Makino placed her in a group called Super Monkeys, with five other girls, Anna Makino, Hisako Arakaki, Nanako Takushi. A year after their September 1992 debut with Toshiba-EMI, the relocated to Tokyo. Super Monkeys did not gain success and the group went through constant lineup changes. They changed their name to Namie Amuro with Super Monkeys in 1994 to reflect Amuros rising popularity as an upcoming actress, aside from groups musical activities, Amuro had bit parts in Japanese television series and small films
20.
Ayumi Hamasaki
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Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese recording artist, lyricist, model, and actress. Through her entire career, she has all her lyrical content, produced her own music and has sometimes co-composed her music. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen in 1993 to pursue a career in singing and acting, in 1998, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, Hamasaki released her debut single Poker Face and debut major-label album A Song for XX. The album debuted at the top of the Oricon charts and remained there for four weeks, selling over a million copies and her next five albums shipped over a million copies in Japan, with her third, Duty, selling nearly three million and becoming her best-selling studio album. A Best, her first compilation album, is her best-selling album, in 2009, after her album Next Level was released, album and single sales declined due to competition from upcoming artists. Throughout her career, Hamasaki has had all her albums within the top five position in Japan and has five million-selling singles, including Boys & Girls, A, Seasons, M and H. Called Ayu by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the Empress of J-pop because of her popularity and influence in Japan and she has appeared in or lent her songs to many advertisements and television commercials. Though she originally supported the exploitation of her popularity for commercial purposes, she later reconsidered, Hamasaki has sold over 50 million records, making her best-selling Japanese solo artist of all time. From 1999 to 2010, Hamasaki had at least one each year topping the charts. Hamasaki is the first female recording artist to have ten studio albums since her debut to top the Oricon, Born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Hamasaki was raised as an only child by her mother and grandmother. Her father had left the family when she was three and never came into contact with her. Hamasakis mother worked to support the family, so Hamasaki was primarily taken care of by her grandmother and she described herself as a tomboy when she was a teenager, and as a “strange kid” who “liked to be alone”. At age seven, Hamasaki began modeling for local institutions, such as banks and she continued this career path by leaving her family at fourteen and moving to Tokyo as a model under SOS, a talent agency. Her modeling career did not last long, SOS eventually deemed her too short for a model and transferred her to Sun Music, under the name of Ayumi, Hamasaki released a rap EP, Nothing from Nothing, on the Nippon Columbia label in 1995. She was dismissed from the label when the failed to chart on the Oricon. After this failure, Hamasaki took up acting and starred in B-movies such as Ladys Ladys, sōcho Saigo no Hi and television dramas such as Miseinen, which were poorly received by the public. From August 1995 to March 1996, Hamasaki also co-hosted the SoundLink magazine Hōkago no Ōsama for the Nintendo Satellaview once a week with Shigeru Izumiya, growing dissatisfied with her job, Hamasaki quit acting and moved in with her mother, who had recently moved to Tokyo. Hamasaki was initially a student, earning good grades in junior high school
21.
Gyaru-moji
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Gyaru-moji or Heta-moji, is a style of obfuscated Japanese writing popular amongst urban Japanese youth. Since writing in gyaru-moji requires extra effort, and due to the perception of confidentiality, the origin of this style is unclear but it has been proposed that magazines targeted at teenage girls first made it popular, and the phenomenon started to gain wider attention in media around 2002. The style has been met with increasing criticism, as its use continues to expand, reported instances of girls using the writing in school work, OLs adopting the style in the workplace, and gyaru-moji being used in karaoke subtitling, are examples of this. Laura Miller has analyzed gyaru moji as an example of gender resistance, like leet, gyaru-moji replaces characters with visually similar characters or combinations of characters. Hiragana consisting of connected strokes are replaced by symbols or Greek letters, for example, hiragana consisting of detached elements are replaced by sequences of kana, Western letters, or symbols. For example, ほ may be typed as |ま or (ま, け may be typed as レナ, Iナ, or (†, and た may be typed as ナ= or †こ. Katakana is frequently replaced by similar-looking kanji, such as 世 for セ or 干 for チ, kana and rōmaji may be mixed freely, even within a word, and Latin letters in rōmaji may be replaced with similar-looking Cyrillic letters, such as replacing N with И. Compound kanji are decomposed into left and right elements, which are written as individual kanji or kana, for example, the kanji 好 in 好き, meaning like, enjoy may be split into 女子. Combined with character substitution, this can make the meaning of the message almost unintelligible to those not “in the know” and this is analogous to the use of leet’s specialized grammar. For example, the sentence 「私は今とても良い気分です。」 is “Right now I am feeling very good. ”By first rewording this as 「超気持ちいい！」 or 「チョーキモチイイ！」 – which roughly translates as “ Super good feeling. ”– and then converting to gyaru-moji to get 「走召 氣 持 ち ぃ ぃ. 」 or 「于∋─≠モ于ｲｲ！」, the message could prove difficult for those not versed in the style to understand. The original Japanese hiragana followed by romaji, and then various versions of the Japanese character in gyaru moji, here are some examples of gyaru-moji created from compound kanji. Martian language, a phenomenon in the Chinese language. Emoji Japanese girls devise their own written language
22.
Panchira
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Panchira refers to a brief glimpse of a womans underwear. The term carries risqué connotations similar to the word upskirt in English usage, the word is a portmanteau of panty and chira, the Japanese sound symbolism representing a glance or glimpse. It differs from the general term upskirt in that panchira specifies the presence of underpants. In anime and manga, panchira usually refers to a panty-shot, according to Japanese sources, the convention probably started with Machiko Hasegawas popular comic strip Sazae-san, whose character designs for Wakame Isono incorporated an improbably brief hemline. The practice was transferred to animation when Osamu Tezukas Astro Boy was adapted for television in 1963. Confined mainly to harmless childrens series throughout the remainder of the decade, from that point on, panchira became linked with sexual humor such as the kind found in many comedy oriented shōnen manga. The word Panchira is similar to panty peek in English, in some Spanish-speaking countries, Fotografiando is sometimes used to let a woman know she is showing someone her underwear Traditionally, Japanese women did not wear underwear. On December 16,1932, there was a fire in the Tokyo Shirokiya department store, legend has it that some of the female staff tried to use their kimonos to cover their privates as they climbed down ropes from the higher floors, and accidentally fell to their deaths. Japanese newspapers began agitating for women to start wearing drawers, in a 1934 survey by a Fukuoka newspaper, 90% of the women surveyed were still not wearing drawers a year and a half after the fire. As noted below, the development of panchira in Japanese popular culture has been analyzed by a number of American, many observers link the phenomenon to the Westernization of Japan following World War II. During the occupation, fashions, ideas, and media previously unavailable were accessed by the local population, western-style clothing gained popularity in the post-war period, reinforced through numerous media outlets — magazines, newspapers, films, journals, and comics. At least one Japanese source traces the beginnings of panchira to the release of The Seven Year Itch in 1955, the media coverage surrounding Marilyn Monroes iconic scene fueled the emerging Japanese craze. Inoue also writes that actress Mitsuyo Asaka spurred the popularity of the word chirarizumu by parting her kimono to show off her legs in her shows in the late 1950s. This led to children imitating her line Oh Mouretsu, and a fad for skaato-mekuri, ogawa subsequently appeared in a TV show Oh Sore Miyo that again featured scenes of her mini-skirt blowing up. By the late 1960s, panchira had spread to the comic industry. Adult manga magazines had existed since 1956, but it is significant to note the introduction of sexual imagery into boys manga, artists working for the pay-library system had already pioneered the depiction of graphic violence, and had proudly declared that they were drawing gekiga, not mere comics. In the search for realism, it was inevitable that sex would soon make an appearance, as the Japanese comics market diversified, sex spread beyond the gekiga to just about every conceivable niche in the marketplace. The gekiga continued their realistic and often violent depictions, but the major divisions in the manga world developed their own approach
23.
Uniform fetishism
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Uniform fetishism is a sexual fetishism where an individual is sexually aroused by uniforms. Among the most common uniforms in uniform fetish are those of an officer, Prison officer, soldier, schoolgirl, nurse, French maid, waitress, cheerleader. Some people also regard nuns habits or even aprons as uniforms, sometimes uniforms are used according to what activity is being done. For example, someone may wear a uniform to administer an enema or a police uniform to handcuff. Two people may dress as inmates for cell mate-on-cell mate activities in a setting or as a submissive to a third roleplayer. This may add a sense of authenticity to the game play, a stripper dressed as a police officer is a popular fixture at birthday and bachelor parties. The officer begins with a mock arrest, often using handcuffs, a schoolgirl uniform fetish is a sexual fetish in which someone derives sexual pleasure from viewing others dressed in the typical uniform of a schoolgirl, or from themselves dressing in that manner. The schoolgirl image may appeal to women because it allows them to project a more youthful, innocent and these same reasons can explain part of the looks appeal to males as well. It may also have a sexual aspect of nostalgia, recalling memories of a simpler time in ones life. Often the contrast of a fully developed woman in a role is appealing. This can include fantasies or re-enactments of childhood events including corporal punishments such as spanking, school canings, another popular clothing fetish involves cheerleader uniforms. The popularity of the provocative Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in the 1970s established the cheerleader as an American icon of wholesome sex appeal, as a result, the uniform remains one of the most popular outfits for Halloween, costume parties, exotic dancers, specialty prostitutes, and role-playing couples. A popular costume for sexual roleplay, the French maid uniform, worn by a servant who traditionally defers to her master, carries an implicit dominance. When worn during sexual foreplay or by practitioners of the BDSM lifestyle, in Friends with Money, Jennifer Anistons character, dresses as a French maid for her boyfriend, first vacuuming and using a feather duster, then having sexual intercourse whilst still in costume. On the NBC TV series 30 Rock, Aniston once again wore a skimpy maid costume in an attempt to seduce Alec Baldwins character, in Desperate Housewives, Lynette wears a French maid outfit bought at a lingerie store to spice up her marriage. Uniforms worn by men, fire fighters and police officers present an image of enhanced masculinity and authority that often has a strong sexual appeal to both straight women and gay men. For example, the popular 1970s disco group The Village People dressed up as gay fetish stereotypes, including an officer, military man. Nazi chic, particularly the black SS officers uniform, has widely adopted and fetishized by underground gay and BDSM lifestyle groups
24.
AV idol
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Since the dawn of the AV industry in the early 1980s, hundreds of AV idols have debuted every year, with an average career span of about a year, appearing in five or ten videos during that time. Notable AV idols have careers spanning several years, have a general public recognition. The line between adult and family entertainment in Japan is not as clear-cut as it is in other countries. A celebrity may appear in AVs after already having established a career in mainstream television, also, it is not rare for a popular AV actress to go on to mainstream celebrity. The AV, or Adult Video market is an industry in Japan. In 1992, it was reported that over 11 AVs were being made every day by over 70 production companies in Tokyo alone, the AV market was estimated to make up about 30 percent of Japans video rentals. It was estimated in 1994 that, between legal and illegal videos, around 14,000 AVs a year were being made in the country, in contrast to about 2,500 in the United States. In an English language interview in 2011, AV idol Azusa Maki estimated that as many as 10,000 girls attempt to get into the Japanese AV industry each year. AV performers were often struggling actresses who could not find work in the theatrical Roman Porno films, AV star Kaoru Kuroki has been credited with raising the status of AV idols in the publics eye. According to Rosemary Iwamura, she didnt seem to be making videos because of a lack of options, AV actresses are usually recruited by scouts in Tokyo neighborhoods such as Roppongi, Shinjuku and Matahine. These scouts are affiliated with talent agencies who then hire the actresses to the AV production companies, some women wishing to appear in AVs apply to the production companies, but they are usually referred to the talent agencies. The production companies are typically charged ¥1.5 million or more for an actress to appear in a video, AV actresses make between ¥200,000 and 4 million yen per video. Steve Scott, president of Third World Media, an importer of Japanese adult movies to the United States, AV fans are invited to follow the progress of a prominent AV actress career over several video appearances. In her AV debut video, the actress is introduced as a new face, yagi mentions the slender type, Lolita type, buxom type and so on. In the years following Matsuzakas debut, the AV world was never without another major big-bust AV idol, including Hitomi Tanaka, Miki Sawaguchi, Mariko Morikawa, Rin Aoki, by the mid-1990s, the Big Bust genre had become a staple of the AV industry. The vast majority of AV actresses make their debuts in their late teens, however, in the mid-1990s, a trend for mature women models in AVs became evident. These older actresses became popular in AVs with an incest theme, chronology of adult videos in Japan Pornography in Japan Junior idol Adachi, Noriyuki. Xcity. jp/english AV Idol Profiles Bornoff, Nicholas, pink Samurai, An Erotic Exploration of Japanese Society, The Pursuit and Politics of Sex in Japan
25.
Cosplay restaurant
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Cosplay restaurants are theme restaurants and pubs that originated in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, around the year 1999. They include maid cafés and butlers café, where the service dress as elegant maids. Such restaurants and cafés have quickly become a staple of Japanese otaku culture, compared with service at normal cafés, the service at cosplay cafés involves the creation of a rather different atmosphere. The staff treat the customers as masters and mistresses in a home rather than merely as café customers. In a standard maid cafe the female employees dress up as french maids, upon entering one of such stores, the customer is greeted with the customary Welcome home, Master, offered a wipe towel and shown a food/drink menu. Popular dishes include cakes, ice-cream, omurice, spaghetti, as well as such as Coca-Cola, tea, milk or alcoholic beverages such as beer or, in some cases. Other options include taking polaroid pictures, playing card, video games, and/or even slightly more unusual ones, there exists a wide range of establishments catering to specific tastes and offering different services to customers. In other stores, the outfits and even the setting itself change, in school-themed cafes, for example, customers are referred to as senpai instead of Master or Mistress. Inside, regular tables are replaced by school desks and even the menu is served in trays reminiscent of the used in Japanese schools. Other themes include, little sister, shrine girl or railway cafes/izakaya, recently, with the maid cafe scene booming, additional related services have become popular. These include ear cleaning, a foot or hand massage, photography sessions or even dates with maids, while most cosplay restaurants and maid cafes cater mostly to men, there is also a type for women called the butler café. The butlers in these cafes are well-dressed male employees and may wear either a typical waiters uniform or even a tuxedo or tails, one butler cafe has its waiters cosplay as teenage schoolboys, in an effort to appeal to the fujoshi who enjoy Boys Love. There are also cross-dressing butler cafes, where female staff dress up as butlers, with the popularity of maid cafes, a number of other businesses have followed. Within Akihabara alone one can find several legitimate massage parlors, a maid eyeglass store, one maid cafe which opened in the west was the i maid cafe located in Scarborough, Ontario, and was featured in CBCs newsmagazine, The Hour. The cafe was closed in November 2007 because management failed to pay back rent, in December 2007, Royal-T opened in Culver City, California, and has been featured in several magazines, such as Elle and the LA Times. It is a combination of maid cafe, store, and art gallery, the restaurant closed after five years. In September,2008, a Japanese franchise Crepe House Uni, opened in Davis, California and their workers wore maid uniforms, but it was not exactly a maid cafe. In 2012 a maid cafe called Chou Anime opened up in the Midtown district of Detroit, information about the cafe can be seen on their website
26.
Host and hostess clubs
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Hostess clubs are a common feature in the night-time entertainment industry of East Asian countries. They employ primarily female staff and cater to males seeking drinks, the modern host clubs are similar establishments where primarily male staff adhere to females. Host and hostess clubs are considered part of mizu shōbai, the entertainment business in Japan. In Japan, two types of bars are hostess clubs and kyabakura, a portmanteau of kyabarē and kurabu, hostesses who work at kyabakura are known as kyabajō, meaning cabaret girl, and many of them use professional names called genji name. Hostesses light cigarettes, provide beverages for men, offer flirtatious conversation, hostesses can be seen as the modern counterpart of geishas, providing entertainment to groups of salarymen after work. A club will also employ a female bartender, who is usually well-trained in mixology. Hostess clubs are distinguished from strip clubs in that there is no dancing, prostitution, the idea of hostesses usually will implicate sentiments of gender inequality throughout the social aspects of Japan. Hostesses often drink with each night, and alcohol problems are not uncommon. These problems are derived from mass consumption of alcohol by which many consequences may arise, most bars by a commission system by which hostesses receive a percentage of sales. The hostess then splits the proceeds of the sale with the bar 50/50, the light or no alcohol content of the drinks maximizes profits and ensures that the hostess does not become intoxicated after only a short time at work. Businesses may pay for tabs on company expense with the aim of promoting trust among male co-workers or clients, at one establishment, about 90% of all tabs were reportedly paid for by companies. Patrons are generally greeted comfortably at the door and seated as far away from customers as possible. In some instances, a customer is able to choose with whom he spends time, in either case, the hostess will leave after a certain amount of time or number of drinks, offering the customer a chance to see a fresh face. While most establishments have male touts outside to bring in customers, Hostess clubs have a strict no touching policy and patrons will be removed for trying to initiate private or sexual conversation topics. Normal hostess clubs also need a permit to allow dancing, clubs are inspected often by the Public Safety Commission. Any club found violating its permitted activities can have its business license terminated or be suspended, hostessing is a popular employment option among young foreign women in Japan, as demand is high. However, work visas can be difficult to obtain, so choose to work illegally. The clubs sometimes take advantage of the legal situation of the women
27.
Sun tanning
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Sun tanning or simply tanning is the process whereby skin color is darkened or tanned. It is most often a result of exposure to radiation from sunlight or from artificial sources. People who deliberately tan their skin by exposure to the sun engage in a recreational activity of sun bathing. Some people use chemical products which can produce a tanning effect without exposure to ultraviolet radiation, some people tan or sunburn more easily than others. This may be the result of different skin types and natural color. Several cases of tanning addiction have been reported by medical researchers, the term tanning has a cultural origin, arising from the color tan. Its origin lies in the Western culture of Europe when it became fashionable for women to seek a less pale complexion. Melanin is a natural pigment produced by cells called melanocytes in a process called melanogenesis, melanocytes produce two types of melanin, pheomelanin and eumelanin. Melanin protects the body by absorbing ultraviolet radiation, with the production of the melanin, the skin color darkens. The tanning process can be triggered by natural sunlight or by artificial UV radiation, the intensity is commonly measured by the UV Index. UVA may also cause melanin to be redistributed, but its quantity is unchanged. Skin darkening from UVA exposure does not lead to increased production of melanin or protection against sunburn. In the second process, triggered primarily by UVB, there is an increase in production of melanin, melanogenesis leads to delayed tanning, and typically becomes visible two or three days after exposure. Typically, it can provide a modest Sun Protection Factor of 3, however, in order to cause true melanogenesis-tanning by means of UV exposure, some direct DNA photodamage must first be produced, and this requires UVB exposure. The ultraviolet frequencies responsible for tanning are often divided into the UVA, ultraviolet A radiation is in the wavelength range 320 to 400 nm. It is present more uniformly throughout the day, and throughout the year, most UVA is not blocked by the atmospheres ozone layer. UVA causes the release of existing melanin from the melanocytes to combine with oxygen to create the actual tan color in the skin and it is blocked less than UVB by many sunscreens, but is blocked to some degree by clothing. UVA is known both to cause DNA damage and to be carcinogenic, however, it operates not by inducing direct DNA damage, but by producing reactive oxygen species which damage DNA indirectly
28.
Cosplay
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Cosplay, a contraction of the words costume play, is a performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture and a use of the term cosplay applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage. Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject, favorite sources include manga and anime, comic books and cartoons, video games, and live-action films and television series. The term cosplay is a Japanese portmanteau of the English terms costume, the term was coined by Nobuyuki Takahashi of Studio Hard while attending the 1984 World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles. He was impressed by the hall and the fans and reported on both in Japanese magazine My Anime. The coinage reflects a common Japanese method of abbreviation in which the first two moras of a pair of words are used to form an independent compound, costume becomes kosu, Costume parties or fancy dress parties were popular from the 19th century onwards. Most specific costumes described therein are for historical figures although some are sourced from fiction, one of the earliest recorded examples of costuming based on an existing character from popular media were costumes based on A. D. Condos science fiction comic character Mr. Skygack, from Mars, in 1908, a Mr. and Mrs. William Fell attended a masquerade at a skating rink in Cincinnati, Ohio wearing Mr. Skygack and Miss Dillpickles costumes. Shortly after, in 1910, a woman won first prize at masquerade ball in Tacoma. The first people to wear costumes to attend a convention were science fiction fans Forrest J Ackerman, paul and the 1936 film Things to Come, designed and created by Douglas. Ackerman later stated that he thought everyone was supposed to wear a costume at a science fiction convention, although only he and Douglas did. Fan costuming caught on, however, and the 2nd Worldcon, david Kyle won the masquerade wearing a Ming the Merciless costume created by Leslie Perri, while Robert A. W. Lowndes received second place with a Bar Senestro costume. Other costumed attendees included guest of honor E. E. Smith as Northwest Smith and both Ackerman and Douglas wearing their futuristicostumes again, masquerades and costume balls continued to be part of World Science Fiction Convention tradition thereafter. Early Worldcon masquerade balls featured a band, dancing, food, contestants either walked across a stage or a cleared area of the dance floor. Ackerman wore a Hunchbackerman of Notre Dame costume to the 3rd Worldcon in 1941, which included a designed and created by Ray Harryhausen. Douglas wore an Akka costume, the mask made by Harryhausen, to the 3rd Worldcon. Rules governing costumes became established in response to specific costumes and costuming trends, the first nude contestant at a Worldcon masquerade was in 1952 but the height of this trend was in the 1970s and early 1980s, with a few every year. This eventually led to No Costume is No Costume rule, which banned full nudity, mike Resnick describes the best of the nude costumes as Kris Lundi wearing a harpy costume to the 32nd Worldcon in 1974
29.
Yaoi fandom
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English-language fan translations of From Eroica with Love circulated through the slash fiction community in the 1980s, forging a link between slash fiction fandom and Yaoi fandom. Most yaoi fans are teenage girls or young women, in Japan, female fans are called fujoshi, a pun which denotes their way of seeing homosexual relationships in media as being rotten. The male equivalent is called a fudanshi, both male and female fans are stated as being hetero- or bisexual, actual gay men fans are more likely to prefer Bara genre media. Yaoi fans have been characters in such as the seinen manga Fujoshi Rumi. At least one butler cafe has opened with a theme in order to appeal to the Boys Love aesthetic. In one study on visual kei, 37% of Japanese fan respondents reported having yaoi or sexual fantasies about the visual kei stars, most yaoi fans are either teenage girls or young women. The female readership in Thailand is estimated at 80%, and the membership of Yaoi-Con and it is usually assumed that all female fans are heterosexual, but in Japan there is a presence of lesbian manga authors and lesbian, bisexual or questioning female readers. Recent online surveys of English-speaking readers of yaoi indicate that 50-60% of female readers self-identify as heterosexual and it has been suggested that Western fans may be more diverse in their sexual orientation than Japanese fans and that Western fans are more likely to link BL to supporting gay rights. Much like the Yaoi readership base, the majority of Yaoi fanfiction writers are also believed to be heterosexual women, the reasoning behind this trend is sometimes attributed to the patriarchy- that women who write yaoi fanfiction are in fact acting out heterosexual fantasies through these male figures. Although the genre is marketed at women and girls, gay, bisexual, in one library-based survey of U. S. yaoi fans, about one quarter of respondents were male, online surveys of Anglophone readers place this percentage at about 10%. Lunsing suggests that younger Japanese gay men who are offended by gay mens magazines pornographic content may prefer to read yaoi instead. Lunsing notes that some of the narrative annoyances that homosexual men express about yaoi manga, such as rape, misogyny, some male manga artists have produced yaoi works, using their successes in yaoi to then go on to publish gei comi. Most Western yaoi fansites appeared some years later than pages and lists devoted to mainstream anime, as of 1995, they revolved around the most famous series, such as Ai no Kusabi and Zetsuai 1989, and by the late 1990s, English-speaking websites mentioning yaoi reached the hundreds. As of 2003, on Japanese-language internet sites, there were roughly equal proportions of sites dedicated to yaoi as there were sites by, on 16 November 2003 there were 770,000 yaoi websites. As of April 2005, a search for non-Japanese sites resulted in 785,000 English,49,000 Spanish,22,400 Korean,11,900 Italian and 6,900 Chinese sites, in January 2007, there were approximately five million hits for yaoi. Jessica Bawens-Sugimoto feels that in general, slash and yaoi fans are dismissive of mainstream hetero-sexual romance, deborah Shamoon said that the borders between yaoi, shōjo manga and ladies comics are quite permeable, suggesting that fans of BL probably enjoyed both homosexual and heterosexual tales. Kazuma Kodaka, in an interview with Giant Robot suggested that the Japanese yaoi fandom includes married women who had been her fans since they were in college, dru Pagliassottis survey indicates that loyalty to an author is a common factor in readers purchase decisions. Yōka Nitta has noted a split in what her readers want - her younger readers prefer seeing explicit material, there is a perception that the English-speaking yaoi fandom is demanding increasingly explicit content, but that this poses problems for retailers
30.
Kawaii
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Kawaii is the quality of cuteness in the context of Japanese culture. It has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms. The word kawaii originally derives from the phrase 顔映し kao hayushi, the second morpheme is cognate with -bayu in mabayui dazzling, glaring, blinding, too bright. Over time, the meaning changed into the meaning of cute. It is most commonly written in hiragana, かわいい, but the ateji, the kanji in the ateji literally translates to able to be loved, can/may love, lovable. The original definition of kawaii came from Lady Murasakis The Tale of Genji where it referred to pitiable qualities, the rise of cuteness in Japanese culture emerged in the 1970s as part of a new style of writing. Many teenage girls began to write laterally using mechanical pencils and these pencils produced very fine lines, as opposed to traditional Japanese writing that varied in thickness and was vertical. The girls would write in big, round characters and they added little pictures to their writing, such as hearts, stars, emoticon faces. These pictures would be inserted randomly and made the difficult to read. As a result, this writing style caused a lot of controversy and was banned in many schools, during the 1980s, however, this new cute writing was adopted by magazines and comics and was put onto packaging and advertising. From 1984 to 1986, Kazuma Yamane studied the development of cute handwriting and his conclusion was based on an observation that cute handwriting predates the availability of technical means for producing rounded writing in comics. Tomoyuki Sugiyama, author of Cool Japan, claims cute fashion in Japan can be traced back to the Edo Period with the popularity of netsuke, because of this growing trend, companies such as Sanrio came out with merchandise like Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty was a success and the obsession with cute continued to progress in other areas as well. The 1980s also saw the rise of cute idols, such as Seiko Matsuda, women began to emulate Seiko Matsuda and her cute fashion style and mannerisms, which emphasized the helplessness and innocence of young girls. The market for cute merchandise in Japan used to be driven by Japanese girls between 15 and 18 years old. No longer limited to teenagers, however, the spread of making things as cute as possible, soichi Masubuchi, in his work Kawaii Syndrome, claims cute and neat have taken precedence over the former Japanese aesthetics of beautiful and refined. As a cultural phenomenon, cuteness is increasingly accepted in Japan as a part of Japanese culture, Japanese women who feign kawaii behaviors that could be viewed as forced or inauthentic are called burikko and this is considered a gender performance. The term burikko is formed with buri, a pun on furi and it was a neologism developed in the 1980s by comedian Kuniko Yamada
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Lolita fashion
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Lolita is a fashion subculture originating in Japan that is based on Victorian and Edwardian clothing. The origin of the meaning is complex, and remains unclear. The movement probably started in the late 1970s when famous labels including Pink House, Milk, in the 1990s, brands such as Princess Princess began to rise in popularity which prompted the style to become popularized in Tokyo with Japanese youth. Gothic Lolita, sometimes shortened to GothLoli, is a combination of gothic, the fashion originated in the late 1990s in Harajuku. The magazine Gothic & Lolita Bible was founded in 2001
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Otaku
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Otaku is a Japanese term for people with obsessive interests, commonly the anime and manga fandom. Its contemporary usage originated with Akio Nakamoris 1983 essay in Manga Burikko, Otaku may be used as a pejorative, its negativity stems from the stereotypical view of otaku and the medias reporting on Tsutomu Miyazaki, The Otaku Murderer, in 1989. According to studies published in 2013, the term has become less negative, Otaku subculture is a central theme of various anime and manga works, documentaries and academic research. The subculture began in the 1980s as changing social mentalities and the nurturing of otaku traits by Japanese schools combined with the resignation of such individuals to become social outcasts. The subcultures birth coincided with the boom, after the release of works such as Mobile Suit Gundam before it branched into Comic Market. The definition of otaku subsequently became more complex, and numerous classifications of otaku emerged, in 2005, the Nomura Research Institute divided otaku into twelve groups and estimated the size and market impact of each of these groups. Other institutions have split it further or focus on an otaku interest. These publications classify distinct groups including anime, manga, camera, automobile, idol, the economic impact of otaku has been estimated to be as high as ¥2 trillion. Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another persons house or family and this word is often used metaphorically, as an honorific second-person pronoun. In this usage, its literal translation is you, for example, in the anime Macross, first aired in 1982, the character Lynn Minmay uses the term this way. His 1983 series An Investigation of Otaku, printed in the lolicon magazine Manga Burikko, animators Haruhiko Mikimoto and Shōji Kawamori had used the term between themselves as an honorific second-person pronoun since the late 1970s. Supposedly, some used it past the point in their relationships where others would have moved on to a less formal style. Because this misuse indicated social awkwardness, Nakamori chose the word itself to label the fans, morikawa Kaichirō, an author and lecturer at Meiji University, identified this as the origin of its contemporary usage. However, a different claim points to a 1981 Variety magazine essay, in 1989, the case of Tsutomu Miyazaki, The Otaku Murderer, brought the fandom, very negatively, to national attention. Later that year, the contemporary knowledge magazine Bessatsu Takarajima dedicated its 104th issue to the topic of otaku and it was called Otaku no Hon and delved into the subculture of otaku with 19 articles by otaku insiders, among them Akio Nakamori. This publication has been claimed by scholar Rudyard Pesimo to have popularized the term, in modern Japanese slang, the term otaku is mostly equivalent to geek or nerd, but in a more derogatory manner than used in the West. However, it can relate to any fan of any theme, topic. When these people are referred to as otaku, they are judged for their behaviors -, the word entered English as a loanword from the Japanese language
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Visual kei
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Some Western sources consider that visual kei refers to a music genre, with its sound usually related to glam rock, punk rock and heavy metal. However, second generation visual kei acts play various genres, including those considered by some as unrelated to rock such as electronic, pop, Visual kei emerged in the 1980s underground scene, pioneered by bands such as X Japan, Dead End, Derlanger, Buck-Tick and Color. The term visual kei is believed to come one of X Japans slogans, Psychedelic Violence-Crime of Visual Shock. The movement is divided into two generations, with the first in three transitional eras, of which the first lasted almost a decade. In the late 1980s and until the mid 1990s, visual kei received increasing popularity throughout Japan, the most notable bands to achieve success during this period included X Japan, Buck-Tick and Luna Sea, however, a drastic change in their appearance accompanied their success. In 1992, X Japan tried to launch an attempt to enter the American market, even signing with Atlantic Records for a US album, two record labels, Extasy Records and Free-Will, were instrumental in promoting the visual kei scene. Luna Sea and Glay, who went on to sell millions of records, Free-Will was founded by Color vocalist and leader Dynamite Tommy, while at the time not as popular as Extasy, it had many moderately successful acts, such as By-Sexual and Kamaitachi. The second transition era began in 1993 by bands such as LArc-en-Ciel, Glay, Kuroyume, Malice Mizer, around 1995 the visual kei bands experienced a booming success in the general population. It lasted four years, when began the transition era by bands such as Lacryma Christi, Penicillin, Shazna. During the 1990s emerged some subgenres, local Nagoya kei, and several conceptual like Eroguro kei, Angura kei, and Ouji kei or Kodona kei. In 1998, Billboards Steve McClure commented that To a certain extent, hides death means the end of an era, X were the first generation of visual kei bands, for the next generation of bands, its like, Thats it. The torch has been passed to us, a second generation emerged in visual kei-specific live houses managed by record companies like PS Company and Maverick DC Group. Notable newer visual kei bands include The Gazette, Nightmare, Alice Nine, An Cafe, Sug, Mucc, DespairsRay, who have all performed overseas. Veterans of the scene have also established new acts, such as Malice Mizers Mana with his band Moi dix Mois, in 2007, visual kei was revitalized as Luna Sea performed a one-off performance and X Japan officially reunited with a new single and a world tour. With these developments, visual kei bands enjoyed a boost in public awareness, from this generation emerged subgenre Oshare kei which changed the sound and look of the genre, producing pop-rock type with bright attire. In the first five years Dir en Grey was especially well received, in 2007 was held first international exclusive festival, Jrock Revolution, in Los Angeles. Although recently some bands like The Gazette played at Tokyo Dome, in 2009 at Makuhari Messe, and 2011 at Saitama Super Arena, was held V-Rock Festival which gathered over 50 visual kei rock bands. As an epilogue to their 25th anniversary, Luna Sea hosted a festival titled Lunatic Fest on 27 and 28 June 2015
