Japan is famous for various aspects. It is renowned for having exceptionally polite and industrious individuals, as well as offering delectable cuisine. However, it may come as a surprise to learn that Japan also houses a thriving fashion subculture that often takes eccentric trends to a new level. In the following, you will discover a collection of peculiar Japanese fashion trends that challenge conventional perceptions of the country. These trends encompass a range of styles, from cute to bizarre, and even outright outrageous.
Lolita
Looking back on our childhood is a common experience we all share. During those times, life felt less complicated and more enjoyable. We had our toys and spent quality time with friends. Now, let us introduce you to a fashion trend that adds an extra touch of nostalgia to evoke those cherished memories.
Individuals attempt to resemble either a child or a doll to a great extent. Is it adorable or completely unconventional? The choice is yours. This trend revolves around wearing skirts, hoops, and all the accompanying details. There are even subcultures within this trend, such as punk Lolita or gothic Lolita.
Yaeba
The majority of individuals would likely feel insecure about having crooked or protruding teeth, but this is not the case for the Japanese. Yaeba, a fashion trend, involves elongating and sharpening the canine tooth.
Naturally, the process involves surgical implants. The dentist will create a ceramic tooth extension that will be placed over the canine tooth, enhancing its appearance. Additionally, you have the option to select whether you want it to be permanently fixed or removable.
Rockabilly
Presented here is a fashion style that infuses a contemporary Japanese touch into a classic old-fashioned trend. Originating in Japan during the 1950s, this trend continues to be widely embraced in present times.
Men who embrace the latest fashion trends often don outfits that closely resemble Elvis’s distinctive attire. On the other hand, women can often be spotted donning poodle skirts. This fashion style prominently features a plethora of dark-colored clothing and an abundant use of leather.
Shironuri
The Shironuri fashion trend is both eerie and unsettling, as it revolves around creating ghostly appearances by using excessive pale makeup and peculiar attire.
The fashion trend includes an abundance of loose, airy materials and frequently incorporates white hair color. The term “Shironuri” directly means “painted white,” and it is clear that this trend fully embodies its name.
Decora
Combine numerous accessories with extremely vibrant apparel – numerous layers of clothing – that may not necessarily appear compatible, and you’ll witness the emergence of the Decora fashion trend.
The intention of the style is to attract attention and make people take notice, and we must admit that the vibrant colors and unconventional accessories are highly successful in achieving that. Although the style originated in the 1990s, it wasn’t until the 2000s that it truly began to gain popularity.
Cosplay
Cosplay, a trend that may be more recognizable to Western audiences, involves individuals embodying their favorite game or manga characters. With its increasing popularity, more and more people in America are embracing the idea of dressing up as their beloved fictional characters and integrating cosplay into mainstream culture. Cosplayers put great effort into emulating the appearance of their favorite characters during events and gatherings.
However, the outfit is just the beginning in cosplaying. It goes beyond simply wearing the attire – it involves fully immersing oneself in the character. This means adopting the character’s behavior, actions, speech, and even their mannerisms. All of these aspects contribute to the art of cosplaying.
Kigurumi
Kigurumi, a popular street fashion trend in Japan, refers to wearing costumes that depict cartoon animals. The term “Kigurumi” originated from a combination of the Japanese verb “kiru,” meaning “to wear,” and the noun “nuigurumi,” which refers to stuffed toys.
Kigurumi, which is akin to cosplaying, involves dressing up as cartoon characters. In Japan, you can freely indulge in your desire to don the attire of your beloved cartoon character without attracting judgmental glances.
Kogal
Presenting yet another unusual Japanese fashion trend that is bound to make you ponder the state of affairs in that country. The Kogal fashion trend entails Japanese girls donning school uniforms and short skirts to emulate schoolgirls. Additionally, they often opt to wear rolled socks and occasionally dye their hair.
The Tokyo districts, including Shibuya and Harajuku, are widely recognized as the focal point of Kogal culture in Japan. If you visit these areas, you can expect to come across girls who embrace the Kogal trend.
Mori Kei
Certain fantasy narratives idealize the woodland and depict it as the dwelling place of enchanted beings, accessible only to a select few. Although it may be unlikely to come across an actual mystical girl in a forest during a visit to Japan, you may instead encounter the Mori Kei fashion trend.
A Mori Kei girl strives to resemble a girl of the forest, living in harmony with the Earth. This style incorporates garments made of natural materials and features multiple layers of clothing. Occasionally, ruffled hemlines are also incorporated into the outfit.
Visual Kei
Visual Kei, a popular style among Japanese musicians, can be characterized as vibrant and audacious. It is known for its exaggerated makeup, unconventional hairstyles (which we find intriguing), and whimsical costumes.
There are several bands belonging to the Visual Kei genre, such as Bis, Guruguru Eigakan, and others. This style has become increasingly popular across various music genres, ranging from heavy metal to electronica.
Otaku
Otaku can be defined as the Japanese equivalent of a nerd or geek. The Otaku fashion trend is adopted by individuals who are avid fans of a specific anime or manga. Typically, most Otakus are not regarded as stylish or fashionable.
In recent years, numerous brands have started providing clothing options that allow individuals to fully embrace this trend. With Otaku, it is now possible to wholeheartedly express your love for a specific anime.
Reki-jo
There are people who enjoy learning about history, while others prefer to experience it firsthand. This brings us to the unusual Japanese fashion phenomenon known as Reki-jo. Reki-jo denotes a young lady who has a deep passion for traditional Japanese history.
They would explore historical landmarks, get acquainted with historical literature, and overall immerse themselves in Japanese history. This particular interest in Japanese history was even recognized as a form of Otaku culture. However, as time went on, it developed into something distinct and independent.
Fairy Kei
Fairy Kei, a popular fashion trend in Japan, brings a touch of old-fashioned cuteness to the modern world. Despite its name, this style is less about fairies and more about embracing adorable clothing and fashionable elements reminiscent of the 1980s.
Individuals who adhere to the Fairy Kei fashion trend often find inspiration in adorable cartoon figures like My Little Pony and The Care Bears. It is worth noting that certain Fairy Kei outfits are undeniably charming and endearing.
Me No Shita Chiiku/Byojaku
While the majority of girls typically apply eye makeup on the upper eyelids, the Me No Shita Chiiku/Byojaku trend reverses this approach. This trend involves wearing eye makeup beneath the eyes to create a somewhat exhausted or unwell appearance.
Imagine a scenario where a young woman appears helpless and in need of support, but with a uniquely Japanese twist. This particular makeup or fashion trend is designed to portray a girl as fragile and in need of assistance. Therefore, if you come across someone in Japan with flushed eyes, there is no need to feel compelled to immediately come to their aid.
Gyaru
The Gyaru trend reached its highest point during the early 2000s in Japan. This fashion style, perceived by some as an exaggerated version of the American Party Girl, is aptly named after the Japanese transliteration for girl or gal.
Gyaru trend enthusiasts can be identified by their tanned complexions, lengthy hair, noticeable eyelashes, and bold makeup choices. This fashion and style movement also aims to defy the conventional beauty standards in Japan.
Gyaruo
Gyar-oh or Gyaruo is a complete subculture in and of itself. This fashion trend from Japan is for the super fashionable guys. The dresses are loud and make a statement, and people who embrace the trend are not afraid to show it.
It consists of tanned skins, shades, and, of course, hairsprays. Some styles will also have very flamboyant hairstyles to go with the whole look as well – quite the interesting trend, if we might add.
Takenokozoku
This trend was started by a single dance group. The name “Takenokozoku” translates to “bamboo shoot tribe.” It has become more than just a fashion trend – it is now an activity too. The group is also responsible for popularizing Harajuku fashion around Japan.
The style’s iconic elements include jumpsuit-like clothing with lots of colors. We have to say, the suits are not the only things that make this style. You also have to have an attitude.
Manba
Deep tans seem to be a common element in some of the Japanese fashion trends. The Manba fashion trend is a very eye-catching look that uses a dark skin foundation to achieve the tanned look. The girls who follow the trend also perform a specific dancing routine called the Para Para dancing.
The name of the look comes from Yamanba, a witch from Japanese folklore. While most girls follow the Manba look, boys who take on the look have developed their own unique signature style.
Nagomu Gals
The Nagumo Gal trend isn’t really that popular; it used to be more of a groupie style. Most people consider a Nagumo gal as an annoying fan. It was born in 1983 because of a record label named Nagomu.
The style consisted of a grunge-rock look – kind of like an-emo-meets-a-book-nerd vibe. They preferred long-sleeved tees, knee socks, pants or fluffy skirts, and thick rubber-soled shoes. The trend ultimately died down with the label itself.
Over-The-Top Trenches
Over-the-top trench coats can be a great edgy look if you can pull it off. The trend itself spread out to many countries – we always see the Kardashians and the Hadids strutting down the street with oversized shirts or coats.
Ariana Grande, who is quite popular in Japan, also popularized the style of oversized clothing. Now, chic fashion in Japan means oversized trench coats, whether it’s denim blue, crème, or vibrant red – pair it with your favorite heeled boots, and your look is served.
Agejo
Agejo is another one of the trickled down sub-cultures from Gyaru trends. Agejo consists of being more glamorous, with silk slip-in dresses and big hairdos. The trend used to include big stone jewelry, a lot of sparkles, and glitters.
In time, however, it adopted a more subdued look. From hot pink and black lace silk dresses, it went to more pastel-colored soft frocks. The style now includes cascades of curls and soft dewy makeup.
Personalized Pieces
Remember the infamous pair of jeans from Sisterhood of Travelling Pants, where the friends added each little memory in the form of tokens drawn or sewn into their jeans? That’s a type of personalized piece. It’s a trend where you use your creativity to make your clothes your own items.
Japanese people cut up big squares, add big dangling pockets, draw their favorite anime character, write song lyrics, and whatnot – it’s all up to you, but the most important thing is, it’s edgy, and it’s cool under your terms.
Silver Statement Looks
The silver statement looks celebrate the ‘90s flair for fashion. The metallic looks can be served as futuristic, nostalgic ‘90s, disco, and street style hip-hop. Silver look ascends the time/season concept, and Japan is all about it.
Many subcultures have incorporated silver into their style, starting with metallic silver to sparkle to monochrome to silver-white, in various forms as well – pants, skirts, oversized coats, statement pieces, camo pants, and, of course, into thick rubber-soled knee-high boots.
Rasuta Gyaru
Rasuta was also derived from many sub-cultures of Gyaru fashion. You can even call it a sub-culture of a subculture because it’s an addition to the Ganguro world. The Rasuta Gyaru dawns on looks inspired by reggae music. They are fans of Bob Marley and celebrate the colors of the Jamaican flag, which is green-yellow-red.
They also use accessories made of straw, like handbags, and their clothing is mostly hemp material. They sport stylized weaves to match their reggae spirit too.
Shorts Over Sweatpants
Shorts were mostly worn over pants for exercise or sports back in the 1980s, but now it’s nothing compared to how Harajuku flaunts it. It’s dark and chic. Many Harajuku enthusiasts – both men and women – wear it in various styles.
The shorts itself could be of any material – even faux leather – and the size of the shorts also depends on the wearer. It could be short-shorts or half-pants over tight or oversized pants. Most importantly, it’s never tacky
Sleepy Time Chic
This trend of flaunting in your PJs or homewear has been around for some time now. The outfits aren’t similar to regular PJs. Overused pajama bottoms and oversized tees – these items are mostly incorporated in this style.
It can start from colorful PJs made of cotton or silk accessorized with chic uneven bed hair look and makeup, or the drabby side of well-worn home clothes contrasted with over-sized sneakers or designer glittery Skechers, RayBans, and bracelets.
Fluffy Accessories
Who doesn’t love a little fluff? Well, the Japanese street fashion took it up a notch. You’ll see many eye-catching colorful poofy accessories gracefully carried by people. They come in various styles and sizes of bags or earrings of different colors.
People sport fluffy headbands, ankle bracelets to wear with their combat boots, or pretty pastel backpacks. In the world of Japanese fashion, you cannot help but be awed by the extent of creativity. This style is popular amongst tween, teens, and adults.
Military Jumpsuits
The whole trend of wearing military jumpsuits or any kind of khaki jumpsuit is one of the most versatile trends out there. There are many different kinds of looks that can be birthed from it.
There’s the laid-back look paired with white sneakers or the strong assertive look with combat boots that looks beautifully intimidating. The most amazing thing is, in Japan, they keep on playing with the two extremes and create wonderful fashion statements.
Street Harajuku
This style also incorporates a brilliant pairing of items because the final outfit can have so many possibilities! It absolutely depends on the wearer, but generally, oversized hoodies are paired with fishnets and sneakers, and then comes the personalized effects.
Many wear ordinary sneakers, a big bright belt with the end just left dangling, and a cross belt across the chest. Another could be a gothic-inspired look with ripped fishnet, sneakers with spikes, black eyeshadow, and an oversized black hoodie with big blood-red earrings.
Oneegyaru
Oneegyaru also is part of a Gyaru trend, a subculture which refers to the “graduated” look, such as Agejo, “Onee” in Japan means “older sister,” so Oneegyaru is a more mature fashion from Agejo. It is a kind of grown-up look that still celebrates the original styles of Agejo or Gyaru.
The clothing is a bit more sensual mixed in with a lot of practical items such as a coat. Lacy high heels are replaced with pumps, lace pumps, or knee-high leather boots.
Oshare Kei
Oshare Kei fashion has been around for quite a while now. It’s a subset from Visual Kei and started gaining popularity around 2001. “Oshare” means “fashionable.” Since it’s the opposite of Visual Kei, which is the popular trend of rock band themes, Oshare Kei encompasses the pop and synthetic style music.
It’s colorful, bright, loud, and portrays a party vibe. There are major bands who follow the Oshare Kei theme, like B’laive, No Gosan, Vivaush, etc., which leads more fans into Oshare Kei themselves.
Dolly Kei
This is a bit of an antique musical box doll style. Dolly Kei resembles mystical creatures who have lost their way and ended up in this concrete jungle. The clothes consist of vintage summer frocks – long or short – paired with patterned tights, printed pantyhose, etc.
The clothes are always modest and layered. Many of the Dolly Kei enthusiasts also sport muslin frocks with ruffles and laces, wrapped with shawls to create a vintage look.
Spank
Spank is another one of the doll-like fashion trends in Tokyo. The spank fashion, however, is a lot more retro and reminiscent of the ‘80s with tie-dyed tees and bleached jeans. In Tokyo, it’s much more than that, tough.
It transcends the level considerably since spank fashion is much louder and brighter. The colors are not necessarily neon. It includes ranges of pastel colors, sweaters with solid colored pom-poms, fringes, shredded hemps, and so on.
Angura
“Angura” translates to “underground.” The style itself derives from the dark underground theaters that produced shows back in the 1930s, which went against societal norms and views. It contrasts traditional Japanese garments, but are worn with emo grunge vibes.
Many anime artists are, in fact, heavily influenced by Angura fashion and art when creating their characters. The garments include kimono, old-school uniforms, or attires blended with gothic hairstyles and makeup.
Pastel Goth
Pastel goth is one of the most intriguing styles out there. It’s terrifyingly beautiful, but instead of dark colors, it’s all bright pastel – doll-like colors – which makes it all the more intimidating. The pastel goths do not abandon black, though.
They adore adding black accessories with the soft pastels – a combination that plays with patterns, big bows, pink glasses, earrings, and pastel hair. The hair colors may include mint green, lilac, pastel pink, and baby blue – not to mention, silver and purple.
Uchuu Kei
Uchuu Kei fashion mixes both fairytale and futuristic styles. The colors of galaxies are the limit. The look is inspired by a number of concepts but mainly focuses on pixies and aliens – futuristic looks.
There’s a lot of use of silver and purple in many as well as white. A true uchuu kei look may involve a silver crop top, purple latex mini skirt with silver fishnet, and smooth white high-heeled knee-high boots with very thick rubber soles.
Natural Kei
A look derived from Mori girls, Natural kei enthusiasts pretend like it’s the 1800s. The trend could be traced back to the 1970s, where the girls celebrate the natural, soft femininity.
It includes modest clothes that represent village girls – single pieces of sleeveless frock worn over full-sleeved ruffled pieces inside and petticoats as well. The shoes are buckled shoes, or sneakers of brown suede or brown leather polish paired with striped socks.
Otome Kei
Otome Kei can be seen as a kind of look that is related to Lolita. The style is more refined and looks similar to the fashion of upper-class girls back in the 1940s to 1970s. “Otome” translates to “refined lady.”
It is a look that inspires the innocent, good girl looks with plaid skirts, jackets, white knee-length socks, and black buckled shoes. The hairstyle also adds to the refined look with two mature ponytails.
Cult Party Kei
Cult party kei’s main motif is to create looks that use both ‘80s-‘90s characters and religious influences. The looks mostly play with different shades of white – white laces, white muslins, and light pastels as well as bright red contrasts.
Many create doll-like looks with such hairstyles and then keep adding layers of white-silk robes to give a cult vibe. The shoes also stay in ranges of whites. The overall look could also be characterized as doll-like mourning.
Guro Lolita
If you love bandages and creepy dolls, you will love Guro Lolita. Guro Lolita specializes in broken doll imagery as well as gothy imagery. The creepiness is celebrated here. The Guro Lolita is a subculture under Lolita that is quite popular among mainstream Lolita girls, but it isn’t really a look for Lolita tea-parties.
The most fascinating thing is, a Lolita girl can go from sunny doll-like cutesy daylight Lolita to a dark and gore Lolita simply by adding some dark makeup and corn-syrup splatters.
Kawaii
In English, kawaii translates to cute, adorable, or loveable. It is the overarching trend of cuteness that transcends so many aspects of Japanese culture, including fashion. Beyond clothing, kawaii culture also appears in Japanese toys, food, entertainment, and everyday mannerisms.
Examples of kawaii culture, or “cuteness culture,” include famous animated characters like Hello Kitty and Pokémon’s Pikachu. The myriad of cutesy subcultures that made this list all owe a debt of gratitude to the Kawaii trend.
Yami Kawaii
“Yami” in Japanese can mean both “sick” and “dark.” The aesthetic consists of a gorey look, with practitioners wearing t-shirts adorned with dark messaging. Think the American equivalent of goth fashion.
While it may seem odd to an outsider, those that are a part of the culture dress this way as a means of supporting other people afflicted with the same type of dark feelings and are seen as an important way of supporting one another’s mental health.
Harajuku
Harajuku can best be described as a sort of fusion, combining fashion trends and blending them together in a fun way. For example, one could take elements of lolita fashion and twist it up with punk rock or street style for a unique look.
The key is to have fun with it. Second-hand clothes are popular, along with older, and completely mismatched looks. With Harajuku, the possibilities for an outfit are literally endless; just make sure to go overboard with the accessories.
Japanese Sneakerheads
Okay, sneaker culture definitely isn’t an exclusive thing in Japan, but the Japanese do have a remarkable interest in extremely high-end streetwear, and are known for their own, Japan-inspired limited editions.
Notably, the trend in Japan and Asia in general tends to have a preference for brighter colors than the American and European markets. A nice pair of Nike’s to let the people in the street know that you’re a serious collector, but this colorway is far less popular in North America than it is in Japan.
Traditional Tabi Socks
Here’s a little 2020 fashion secret – slides with socks will be the new 2020 fall and winter look, taking inspiration from the several months that people all over the world have been homebound in their respective quarantines.
In Japan, the tabi sock is a style that dates back to the 15th century. For someone looking for the socks and slides look without having to ditch their thonged sandals, these are the ones to get!
