Everything comes back into fashion. And that includes Japanese loincloths. Fundoshi are usually only seen on the bodies (and buttocks) of men taking part in Japanese festivals or on sumo wrestlers (technically called mawashi).

But how about girls? Yes, fundoshi for women is a thing.

Actually, for the past few years people have been talking about this. Even venerable Japanese subculture guru Danny Choo blogged about it back in 2009.

Wacoal were pretty pioneering in this with their Nana Fun fundoshi for women product back in 2008 (sadly no longer on sale).

It led to the start of a trend and a revival in fortune for fundoshi. The Japan Fundoshi Association was even set up a little while later to promote the loincloth. And if you thought that February 14th was Valentine’s Day, you are very much mistaken. It is (also) Fundoshi Day… since 2013 at any rate.

Retailers have sprung up to cope with the demand. Ai Fun is an online store that specializes in “stylish” fundoshi for women. Odakyu Department Store in Shinjuku has a shop called Desk My Style with around 60 kinds of fundoshi on sale for men and women. Apparently they are popular with women in their thirties. There is even growing interest in the trend in other parts of Japan. A specialist fundoshi select store, Teraya, opened in Nagasaki City last November.

As part of this, we recently saw the release of a “mook” for fundoshi. Mooks are a popular element of the Japanese magazine publishing world, semi-regular magazines or spin-off booklets which often include merchandise. In this case, the Fundoshi Panties Loincloth Underwear Mook includes a pair of fundoshi. While officially unisex, the cover and magazine make it clear that this loincloth is being marketed squarely at the girls.

But fundoshi are not just being promoted for girls (and men) because they are novel or traditional. There are health benefits, such as improved blood circulation. Most importantly, fundoshi loincloths are being suggested as excellent nighttime wear for women to help them sleep.

We’re not sure if this qualifies as a “trend” but it made us laugh.

To us, SpongeBob SquarePants has always been a bit creepy, but in Japan the yellow character is apparently a cutie. This must be the reason why he has been chosen as the theme of a new range of pajamas and underwear for Yummy Mart.

The six items in the collection — including slippers, eye mask, underwear, and robe — are modeled here by Monika Sahara, Yui Sakuma and Elaiza Ikeda, and go on sale in Yummy Mart stores from November 12th. No surprises, they’ve gone with yellow.

Yummy Mart is Peach John’s brand for younger girls. Whereas Peach John has famously and successively combined the cute with the sexy, Yummy Mart has more of an innocent pop and fun vibe.

In general, Peach John is a pretty innovative lingerie brand. Its previous ideas include a range of Sailor Moon-inspired cosplay underwear that sells out as soon as new products are added to the range.

If you’re a SpongeBob fan and want to get your hands on these Yummy Mart clothes, you can contact JapanTrendShop to request a special order.

Way back in 2007, the Associated Press reported on the popularity of SpongeBob among Japanese women and how Viacom deliberately target female consumers in the licensing.

Square and loud, SpongeBob wasn’t supposed to have much chance for success in Japan, a nation famous for its love of more cuddly characters like Hello Kitty and Pikachu.

But the perky, bucktoothed American cartoon is proving the skeptics wrong. “SpongeBob SquarePants” attracts nearly 1.9 million Japanese households to his TV show daily and is raking in a growing share of the $5 billion in annual retail sales for Nickelodeon, the Viacom Inc. unit behind the show.

And he’s doing it by capturing the hearts of Japan’s young women — not children, his most loyal fans in the U.S.

“I started collecting Bob because I think he’s cute and he stands out,” said Mayu Takahashi, a 21-year-old student, shopping in Tokyo’s fashionable Harajuku district holding a SpongeBob tote bag. “Some of my friends say he’s a creepy kind of cute.”

Well, the jury may still be out on that question but SpongeBob’s success in Japan is now established.

Winter is coming and it’s time to get cosy inside the kotatsu, the traditional Japanese low table with a large blanket and heater underneath. The kotatsu can be a homemade contraption with a regular table, futon and space heater — or they might be purpose-built models with the heater integrated into the table and radiating very snuggly through the futon.

But how about the kotatsu as a fashion item?

Hatra has created a “kotatsu parka”. The new product went on display recently as an example of a wearable “neo-kotatsu” from Kori-Show, by Itochu Fashion Systems.

It uses four parkas integrated with “kuronos knit” water-repellant materials and connected by zips so you can climb in and out easily. You can attach it to a low household table, either round or rectangular.

While kind of like a heated version of King Jim’s visionary Wearable Futon Air Mat, it means several people can huddle in and keep warm in the winter but also retain your personal space.

The designer from hatra said he was inspired by train seats and also wants to make a similar massage chair in the future. He has been developing the wearable kotatsu idea for a while, since Spoon & Tamago also reported on a prototype version in spring last year.

For some reason Itochu Fashion System thought the best way to advertise a Japanese item of furniture was to get foreigners to try it out and pose for publicity photos, but even so we like the look of the “wearable kotatsu“.

Orders are being taken for the neo-kotatsu, though it will set you back at least ¥255,000 ($2,500).

NEC has got together with Fashion TV to offer a smartphone and tablet service for mobile eCommerce for apparel items you see in a magazine. If you see an item in a magazine you like, you can use GAZIRU-F to snap a shot of it and be connected to a shopping portal to purchase the product.

The service will be available through an app for the fashion magazine persona from spring 2015. GAZIRU-F will be expanded to 20 further companies by 2016 if it proves successful.

NEC has been developing the cloud-based Gaziru technology for a while. Dig Info did a report on it back in 2012.

The name is coined from combining two Japanese words: gazo (image) and shiru (know, recognize).

Similar to Google Goggles or Bing Vision, you can just take a snap of something and get a readout of the information it can draw from a database. No text input is required.

GAZIRU is not restricted to images of 2D objects. Further uses for GAZIRU tech may include helping people operate equipment — take a photograph of something and get an operation manual on your screen in seconds. Likewise there are benefits for health, such as being able to provide nutritional data for certain foods. The educational implications are immense; a museum or exhibition can become interact with further information for visitors who want to know more about a certain item on display.

The days of the humble barcode or QR code are surely limited.

It has been one of the biggest trends of recent years and then just like that, it has faded away.

So-called “tattoo tights” exploded into the popular and digital consciousness in 2011, even garnering overseas attention. The streets of areas like Harajuku and Shibuya were filled with the pins of young girls wearing fake body art-style leggings. The sheer variety of the “tattoo” designs was impressive: from Hello Kitty aplenty to cats, rabbits, onions, and more.

Avantgarde is the main brand behind the street fashion trend and as such opened a tattoo tights store in Harajuku in October 2011. It seems the legs of the fashionista have moved on, since Avantgarde will be closing the brand’s basement-level boutique on November 24th in the face of declining demand for their stockings.

Tattoo tights were a victim of their own success, with numerous replica and cheap imitations flooding the market. Yes, fake-fake tattoo tights!

[Image source]

Launched in 2009 by Kazuhiro Watanabe, MAM Avantgarde was constantly thinking up new bold designs as well as wide-ranging collaborations, including Hello Kitty and Disney. In 2012 Tokyo Fashion.com called Avantgarde Harajuku “the most influential legwear boutique in the Tokyo street fashion scene today”. Sadly, it was not enough to ride the notoriously capricious waves of street fashion for long.

Avantgarde has not announced any new plans for other stores but will continue to sell online. There are still lots of tattoo tights around so perhaps we shouldn’t write off the trend quite yet.

Shiseido’s Hanatsubaki digital archive is a fascinating glimpse back into Japan’s cosmetics advertising past.

Drawing on the graphic design and ads featured over the years in Hanatsubaki, Shiseido’s consumer magazine founded in 1937, and its previous publications Shiseido Geppo (started in 1924) and Shiseido Graph (1933), the archive is a veritable treasure trove.

Shiseido has just added some new Shiseido Geppo (Shiseido Monthly) images from the December 1930 issue, giving us an excuse to indulge in selections from its previous archives. The changing style of the design obviously reflects the progress of both the social and publishing scene.

Shiseido Geppo, 1924

Shiseido Geppo, July 1930

Shiseido Geppo, December 1930

Shiseido Graph, June 1935

Shiseido Graph, 1936 Issue 31

Shiseido Graph, 1937 Issue 45

Shiseido Graph, 1937 Issue 49

Shiseido Hanatsubaki, January 1940

Shiseido Hanatsubaki, March 1952

Shiseido Hanatsubaki, July 1953

Shiseido Hanatsubaki, April 1960

Shiseido Hanatsubaki, June 1962

Hanatsubaki, Shiseido’s “corporate culture magazine”, still continues today. Its name is derived from the Japanese camellia flower and which of course Shiseido has also created a whole line of Tsubaki hair products.

See more images at the Shiseido Hanatsubaki digital archive.

This article by Katie Reilly first appeared on Tokyo Cheapo.

So you want to get dressed up, do the whole kimono thing while you’re in Tokyo? These timeless outfits are not exactly cheap, but that’s why kimono rentals exist. You can experience wearing one for a short time without having to spend an enormous amount of money. Plus, by renting you have someone there to help you with the tricky business of putting it on.

Kimono are the traditional clothing of Japan. While they are not generally seen on a daily basis today, they are still often worn by women and sometimes men for festivals and special occasions. Traditionally kimono were made of silk, though nowadays there are cheaper ones made with less expensive fabrics. Kimono are wrapped so that the left side covers the right, adjusted for height, and are secured with an obi. These are sashes that keep the fabric in place and are tied in the back. Kimono are a beautiful aspect of Japanese culture and fun to experience.

The Omotenashi Kimono Experience (“omotenashi” loosely translating as hospitality) provided by the Nihonbashi Information Center is a reasonable way to try out kimono. At ¥5,500 it won’t be the cheapest thing you do in Tokyo, but it’s good value for the service it offers.

You start by picking out your favorite pattern and color of kimono from the selection they provide, and match it with an obi of your choice. You then move into a second room where their staff will help you put on the kimono. As it is a rather complicated process to attempt by yourself for the first time, they will take care of it for you. It is recommended that you wear or bring an undershirt, as you may want it for extra coverage since you will only be wearing undergarments beneath your kimono. The whole process of getting into a kimono takes about 20 minutes.

After you get into your kimono, you can take some photographs in the tatami room. There are a couple of Japan-esque parasols that can be used when you pose. Once you have taken all the inside photos you want, you choose your zōri (traditional shoes worn with kimono) which are worn with white tabi (traditional socks that divide your big toe from the rest of your toes) and head out for a stroll. While you are out, you can store your belongings in a bag that the center provides and they will keep it for you until you return.

A prime spot for photos, just behind the Coredo building.

The kimono experience can be paired with the guided Best of Japan tour offered by the Nihonbashi Information Center, but if you do the kimono experience separately you are free to wander wherever you want (which we prefer). You have until 6 pm to return the kimono, giving you enough time (if you start at lunchtime) to go sightseeing and take photographs around the city. While they’ll give you a pamphlet on places to see in Nihonbashi, you shouldn’t feel limited to that area. Asakusa is our recommended destination, as there are many shrines and temples there that are good spots for snapping kimono pics.

The kimono experience is only offered on Thursdays and Saturdays from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm (with the 6 pm kimono return), and it’s best to book in advance as they seem to fill up quickly. You can do that online, and you can also schedule a group if you would like to do it with friends or family.

The Omotenashi Kimono Experience can be found in the Kyorakutei Room on the third floor of COREDO Muromachi 3, which is easy to get to from Mitsukoshimae and Nihonbashi Stations. The information center is in the basement floor of the same building, and the staff can give you advice on what can be seen in the area. You can also do a geisha experience (that whole white make-up thing is not part of the regular kimono experience) and tea ceremony for additional fees.

The building where it all happens.

Think you might like to get one of your own? Here’s a cheapo guide to buying kimono.

Read on Tokyo Cheapo.

Want a free haircut? Of course!

But the free cut being offered by Mars Japan Limited for six days at weekends in Omotesando comes at a different sort of price. It’s kind of insane.

While Japan already has its fair dose of odd fashion and beauty trends, many of which manifest themselves as larger-than-life hair styles or wigs, this might be the best hirsute promo we’ve seen in the capital.

The Snickers Hungry Barber will be open for customers over December 12th to 14th, and December 19th to 21st. Based as a pop-up at Zerobase Omotesando (5-1-25 Minami-Aoyama, Minato Ward, Tokyo), patrons can choose from one of eight styles, including “techno”, heavy metal, mohican, “omakase” (leave it to you), “half & half”, and “bakuhatsu” (explosion).

Please pick your cut from the menu below.

If you want a free mohican, you also have to pose for a photo of your new cut with a bar of Snickers, and then upload it to social media. After all, getting your head buzzed is all about creating marketing buzz.

We should point at that while some of the outlandish haircuts might be home in certain districts of Tokyo, the tony Omotesando neighborhood is usually known for luxury fashion and chic tastes.

Hey, at least you can console yourself with the chocolate bar?

UNIQLO spin-off GU recently held a kabe-don event at its Ginza branch as a promo for a holiday season sale.

Does the idea of having a hot guy leaning up against you inside a clothes store, slapping his hand against the wall to trap you in his intimate embrace, inspire you to purchase some fast fashion?

Well, on December 5th GU had a pair of attractive Japanese guys offering just this “service” at its Ginza store.

All you had to do was head to the GU outlet in Ginza, pick one of the special holiday season items in the promo, and then ask the men if the clothes suited you. One of the hotties would then tell you how good you looked while doing a kabe-don on you.

Judging by the pictures and official video, the women were apparently pleased to have guys leaning in on them, perhaps because ordinarily they would have to drag their unenthused partners around on a clothes shopping spree. The idea of a guy taking the time to go around with them in a store — and even compliment and try to get romantic between the aisles — is seemingly a fantasy for some female consumers.

Kabe-don has been one of the trends of the year, with the Morinaga “Kabe-don” Cafe in Harajuku creating headlines for its sheer audacity (it used an artificial waiter), as well pictures of apparent kabe-don poses spreading on social media.

Kabe-don refers to a certain position where a man places his hand against a wall, keeping his female partner there so he can lean in for a smooch. The kabe part means “wall” while don is the sound of the hand hitting the surface.

At the GU event some lucky girls got both guys doing a double kabe-don on them. And this wasn’t a sexist event either, since male customers were also treated to the same experience.

For such a ubiquitous apparel chain, UNIQLO demonstrates a healthy tendency to innovate. Every year its UT t-shirts change and it always works with a massive range of designers and famous franchises to create original collectible clothing.

While in the past these have included pop series from anime and cinema, this time UNIQLO has sought out inspiration from the past.

The Shochiku Kabuki x UNIQLO Project kicks off with a series of t-shirts and other items on sale from March 26th.

Shochiku is a film and theater production company, and runs the Kabuki-za in Ginza, the most famous Kabuki theater.

In the words of the official press release, the new project will “present to the world Japan’s traditional culture in the form of
modern pop culture through Kabuki and clothes.”

Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke IV will be the “Project Ambassador” and the line will go on sale in 14 markets around the world. The launch is actually happening first in France — Japan has an obsession with France as the pinnacle of high culture and the affection is reciprocated — on March 20th, a week ahead of the Japan release.

The new series will include t-shirts, lounge wear, bandanas and tote bags. The designs will include motifs from the Ichikawa yago as well as kumadori stage makeup. Full details of designs will be released on March 19th.

“I believe Japan can rightfully take pride in the artistic traditions and beauty of Kabuki, which we have been promoting ever since our foundation in 1895. Working together with UNIQLO has given us the opportunity to express Kabuki’s bold, yet delicate, aesthetics on clothing in a way never seen before to millions of UNIQLO fans around the world,” says Jay Sakomoto, Shochiku President and CEO.

The new range is a very nice boost for Kabuki, which was declared a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2005. While not as inaccessible as Noh, it is nonetheless an esoteric taste today and most Japanese have trouble understanding all the complex stylistic points, let alone the actual language (performances are surtitled). Foreign tourists, though, are always fascinated by its color and flair, and the right people seem to know this, as evidenced by upcoming March opening of a “Kabuki Gate” at Narita Airport. This spring really will have a Kabuki flavor.

There is a precedent for this from the beauty industry. Isshin Do Honpo Inc has had great success with its series of Kabuki face packs. Like the UNIQLO t-shirts, they too have been made with the help of genuine Kabuki performers and reflect the makeup of characters in real Kabuki plays.

This is the true “cool Japan”: traditions mixed with modern convenience and lifestyle.

Almost a year after we blogged that iconic gyaru and hostess subculture magazine Koakuma Ageha was closing down comes some unexpected good news: Ageha is returning.

Last year was a gloomy one for fashion magazines, with gyaru magazine egg also shuttering. The recent news that established art magazine Bijutsu Techo’s managing company is in financial trouble is a further sign that the industry is in trouble.

So the announcement that Ageha, which once sold between 300-400,000 copies a month, is coming back to life is a rare glimmer of hope — or merely a bold move by the publisher.

In late 2014 the Koakuma Ageha Memorial Book was published, collecting together the eight years of the magazine.

Readers and fans gave it an enthusiastic response, enough to merit reviving the magazine itself, it seems.

And so now comes the announcement that in April there will be a new issue of the magazine, now published by Dunnery Deluxe. The resurrected Ageha will be on sale at bookstores around Japan priced ¥680.

Of course, there’s an adage in the music industry that the best way to sell records is to kill off your artist. In the same way, Koakuma Ageha’s “death” generated a lot of publicity for a title no longer in vogue. The question now is whether it can ride this new wave of interest to establish another monthly readership like it had years ago.

Ten types of stylish wearable smart accessories designed by current female college students have been unveiled. The designs are the results of a project run in partnership between Recruit Technologies’ Advanced Technology Lab and Rikejo, a service for supporting “scientific girls” by the publisher Kodansha.

The designs were themed around making female-friendly lifestyle gadgets, to include such functions as morning wake-up alarms, schedule reminders, friend notifications, compasses, timers, last train alerts, and so on.

At first glance, these designs may look more fashionable than overtly technological; on the surface just bracelets, necklaces, hair bands and more. But they are all meant to integrate certain wearable devices functions.

The project saw the prototypes created within six months, with the designers hailing from a range of colleges such as Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, Hosei University and Aoyama Gakuin University.

The local obsession with females in science took a hit with the Haruko Obokata stem cell scandal last year but that still hasn’t stopped institutions trying to promote women in lab coats who can inject some glamor into the sterile world of academia. Earlier this year, for example, the University of Tokyo released an encyclopedia of beautiful female students. Obokata was the pinnacle of a brief flurry of interest in Rikejo — “scientist women” — though there is a precedent. A few years there was a similar trend for so-called Reki-jo, female history buffs.

[Image via FashionSnap.com]

When “hostess bible” Koakuma Ageha closed down last year, it seemed like the end of an era for Japanese fashion magazines.

But then it relaunched under new management and the status quo was preserved: gyaru culture is still, it seems, alive and well.

To celebrate the relaunch of the magazine, a Koakuma Ageha pop-up store has opened on Omotesando from April 18th to April 29th.

It will sell books by popular age-hime (Little Devil Princesses). Find it on the ground floor of Omotesando Hills. The opening day on April 18th saw hostesses attend and give signed copies of the new magazine to visitors.

This is a typical marketing event for such a title: these kinds of magazines were popular because the models were dokusha “reader” models — i.e. not aloof supermodels but ordinary folk selected as role models — and who the readers could relate to, communicate with and meet. This is similar to how idol groups like AKB48 are promoted as being populated with “ordinary” girls who you can meet.

Image via @

Image via @aiuchicocoa

The new bimonthly magazine is hoping to sell 80-100,000 copies. Pictured are some of the models.

Turn your clothes into letters to be sent in the mail. That’s what fukutegami does.

The clever concept was launched on the crowdfunding platform Readyfor? and cleared its target of ¥550,000 ($4,500). Now it’s going to be send out to the funders in mid-June and eventually will be a regular product sold online or in shops.

With fukutegami you write a “letter” directly onto the clothes (the name itself is a play on the words fuku — clothes — and tegami, letter), fold the clothes into an “envelope”, and then send it to someone in the mail. In these days of digital communication (how many school students today have actually even handwritten and sent a physical letter?!) it stands out as a great way to show someone you care.

You write onto the “letter” space on the inside of the clothes, so your private message to the receiver is not shown on the outside. Wash the clothes and words will disappear, thanks to the qualities of the textiles. The clothes are designed to be folded into an “envelope”-like shape, and with a space to write the address and add the stamp. The set includes a pen and even a stamp.

The unique product doesn’t come cheap, though, planning to retail for around ¥12,000 ($100).

It works best with a plain white shirt, since that most resembles letter paper. But the design can be adjusted for different colors and different types of clothing.

It was developed by a media design grad student at Keio University. Masako Yokoi previously honed her idea through workshops and regional versions. Then she turned to crowdfunding to make it happen as a general product.

It is being made in partnership with three factories in Iwate, Kyoto and Osaka.

Sonia Rykiel has opened a new store in Aoyama, the designer fashion district of central Tokyo. Located at the former Jil Sander Navy flagship address, the shop features a unique interior with striking red fittings and floor-to-ceiling bookcases.

The Japan branch is part of a global campaign. The designer’s flagship store in Paris recently featured 50,000 books as a pop-up makeover themed on the history of the Left Bank. A similar theme is going to transform the London store in May.

In partnership with artistic director Julie de Libran, publisher Thomas Lenthal and artist André Saraïva, the launch is to present the Sonia Rykiel autumn-winter 2015 collection.

The two-floor, 165-square-meter Tokyo location features a carpet with artwork by Saraïva, as well as an exclusive fragrance created especially by Daniela Andrier.

The new Sonia Rykiel boutique can be found at 5-2-12 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku.

We’ve seen a growing interest in bibliophilic spaces in Tokyo.

Bookstore Junkudo began to offer special overnight stays for bookworms in 2014, while Mori no Toshi Shitsu is a book-themed bar in Shibuya that opened last year.

And although it’s now long-closed, Nakameguro was once home to Combine, a kind of hipster book lounge bar-cafe, for many years.

While Japanese TV and history is filled with many people we would likely label LGBT, the issue of same-sex marriage in Japan has been almost taboo until recently.

However, following the decisions by Shibuya and Setagaya wards in Tokyo to offer de-facto legal recognition, same-sex marriage and LGBT rights are headline news.
Disneyland Tokyo and a Kyoto temple are just some of the places now offering wedding services, while two celebrity women held a “wedding” in spring 2015 for the media to publicize the issue.

Now along comes Equal Wedding Japan, offering traditionally flavored wedding experiences for same-sex couples. Operated by an Osaka-based wedding planning firm, it claims to offer the world’s first traditional Japanese wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples. (Moreover, there is full English support too, which isn’t surprising given that the LGBT community in Japan is highly international.)

The kimono-themed weddings are reasonably priced compared to most wedding events in Japan, starting at $4,500, though the plan does not include the meal for you and your guests. (Of course, we should point out that, like heterosexual weddings ceremonies and events in Japan, these are non-legally binding “parties”.)

There are four packages, currently only available in the Kansai region.

The “Japanese traditional wedding” plan “weaves the sacred shinden, shrine maidens, and gagaku into a dreamlike ceremony”.

For a more theatrical style, you can opt for a “Noh wedding”, which takes place on a Noh stage.

The “Machiya wedding” takes place in a “uniquely Japanese guest-house… with a century of venerated history”.

Of course, this is a same-sex wedding service so there is very wisely also a campier choice too: the “samurai wedding” clocks in at $10,000 but lets you and your partner “be the stars of your own epic film”! There is even some ninja training thrown.

And to be clear, this truly is an “equal wedding” service: it’s not just for same-sex couples.

Just under a year ago, Shinjuku Station was taken over by 100,000 “pop-able” bubbles as a promo for the PlayStation game Dragon Quest.

Once again Dragon Quest will be hijacking the same underground concourse at Shinjuku Station, this time to promote the new game Dragon Quest Builders game.

Appropriately for the latest game in franchise, this time it’s not “Slime” character bubbles but building blocks.

There will be 180,000 mini blocks on the 80-meter wall in Shinjuku Station Metro Promenade (between the Marunouchi Line and Alta), forming a colorful, interactive Dragon Quest mural. Passersby can remove the blocks and take them away with them.

As the days of the campaign go by, the 3D block mural will gradually disappear more and more, bringing the poster underneath into view.

A random 300 of the blocks feature a QR code that will allow you to download special campaign wallpaper graphics. (QR codes remain popular tools in Japanese marketing.)

The “Shinjuku Jack” wall started on January 25th and lasts until January 31st, though the blocks can only be removed until 17:00 on January 28th (the day the game is released in Japan).

They upped the numbers this time because frenzied fans popped all the 100,000 Slime bubbles within one day in last year’s campaign. How long will the blocks last for the new promo wall?

If you’re wondering what the materials are for the blocks or assume they must be Lego, apparently they are Nanoblocks.

We’ve seen a surge in these kinds of cleverly interactive physical pop-up campaigns in Tokyo. Last year, Parco hosted a Google Music “sound billboard”.

Later this year, the Rio de Janeiro Olympic and Paralympic Games kick off. After they are finished, the handover event during the Rio closing ceremony will then see the clock really start ticking down to the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

A group of eight production consultants for the handover ceremony have been announced, including pop diva Ringo Sheena, Perfume’s choreographer Mikiko, former synchronized swimming Olympian and Tokyo Games ambassador Mikako Kotani, Paralympic shooter Aki Taguchi, and a Dentsu “creator”.

“I hope to fulfill my job as a consultant in helping showcase Tokyo as well as Japan (to the world),” Sheena was reported as saying.

Sheena is a pop singer with an edgy and sexy style, but isn’t above participating in the mainstream establishment. She previously wrote the official song for NHK broadcaster’s coverage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. There has been no announcement if Sheena is actually performing herself at the handover ceremony, though it would surely be a waste of her talents if not.

Given Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s well-known fondness for idol groups like AKB48 and Momoiro Clover Z, many expected a spectacle similar to that of the ASEAN gala banquet hosted by Japan in 2013, when Exile and AKB48 took to the stage to entertain the region’s leaders.

However, given AKB48 head honcho Yasushi Akimoto’s involvement with the Tokyo Olympic executive board, we can probably still expect at least one of his girl groups to be present at the 2020 Opening Ceremony.

“It will be a tall order to squeeze everything into eight minutes,” Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said. “But I hope we can offer some highlights about Japan that will give the world an idea of what our country is up to.”

“Something like this cannot be left to amateurs. We need experts as well as those who have experienced the Olympics and Paralympics to get this right.”

Mori’s comments may make our eyes roll, since so far there has been little but amateurish pratfalls from the geriatric organizing committee.

All eyes will be on the handover ceremony as it will not only offer a hint as to what we might expect for the 2020 Opening Ceremony, but also mark Tokyo’s first real public test to prove it can handle the task of hosting the Games, following the disaster of the withdrawn logo and scrapped national stadium design.

Ginza Mitsukoshi has opened the first airport-style duty-free store in Japan. The only place in Japan that has previously been allowed to host such retail facilities outside of airports is Okinawa, which is home to a large number of United States military bases and is a popular destination for tourists from nearby China and Taiwan.

Occupying 3,300 square meters, Japan Duty Free Ginza opened on the eighth floor of the Mitsukoshi Ginza department store on January 27th.

The store sells items from such fashion brands as Boucheron, Valentino, Saint Laurent, Vacheron Constantin, Roger Dubuis and Albion, as well as high-end traditional crafts and other souvenirs.

In the same way as an airport duty-free store (one of the corporations behind the management firm is a subsidiary of Narita’s NAA Retailing), products are available at duty-free prices, excluding not only consumption tax but also custom duties, liquor tax, and cigarette tax.

The store also allows customers to purchase items and then pick them up at Haneda or Narita airports when they depart the country.

The organizers are forecasting 2,000 visitors per day and hope it will lead to other duty-free outlets in Tokyo.

Not only foreign visitors, Japan residents planning to leave the country within a month are also allowed to purchase duty-free items at the store.

Inbound tourism to Japan, and especially Tokyo, is experiencing an unprecedented boom (nearly 20 million tourists in 2015), helped by a weak yen and proactive government policies.

Retailers in Shinjuku, Ginza and elsewhere have adopted new strategies to deal with the influx of Asian tourists eager to spend their money on electronics and beauty products. Counters allowing tourists to purchase products at tax-free prices or claim the 8% consumption tax back immediately have appeared at a wide range of stores (even drug stores, since beauty items and cosmetics are popular shopping choices for Asian tourists), and retailers have also developed technological solutions to make this process smoother.

Are we about to witness a revival of the J-horror film genre?

Local horror films experienced a boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Starting with the 1998 release of Ringu, a raft of small but effective Japanese horror films drew audiences domestically and also attracted global interest. Ringu was remade and became a mini series in America in its own right, as did Juon (becoming The Grudge), Dark Water, Kairo (as Pulse), and One Missed Call.

This ran parallel with the breakout of survival horror video games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and more (which also generated their own film adaptations).

Since then, however, J-horror has lapsed into a cycle of lazy sequels in tired series (the Japanese Ringu franchise alone now has five films), and has become known as a genre that casts female idols whom certain fans want to see in peril or screaming. (We will leave the wider, more troubling implications that can be drawn from this “appeal” for another day.) The past three years in particular saw several horror movies released starring current or former AKB48 idols (to mixed box office results), while more low-budget offerings are perennially populated by glamor models.

Last September, the production company Oz, which was being Juon and Ringu, went into bankruptcy proceedings. It looked like the end of the commercial prospects of local horror cinema.

However, with the release of The Inerasable on January 30th, critics are talking about a “return to form” for the genre.

Yoshihiro Nakamura’s film has met with acclaim. Mark Schilling for The Japan Times called it “engrossing and skin-crawling”. The real test will be the box office coffers, though.

June will also see the release of Creepy, directed by J-horror veteran Kiyoshi Kurosawa with an all-star cast. (Coincidentally, both films feature Yuko Takeuchi.)

So does this point to a revival in serious, successful Japanese horror cinema?

Both are based on horror novels, indicating a return to better source materials rather than rely on the same tried-and-test formats from past series, plus are feature Japanese domestic settings that cleverly play on our sense of unease in familiar environments.

While the jury’s still out, with a new home-grown entry in the Godzilla franchise also on the theater schedules this summer, 2016 could well be the year that sees the rebirth of two genres (monster movies and horror) that had at one time been identified very strongly with Japanese cinema.