[New York, December 7. Image via Getty]

NEW YORK - DECEMBER 07: Clarke Simmons (R) and Aaron Chabin (L), both of New York and both veterans of Pearl Harbor, stand with tourist Olivia Bennett, 7, of York, Pennsylvania after they laid a wreath in the harbor during a ceremony December 7, 2009 on the USS Intrepid in New York City. Olivia's father is a war-history buff and brings his daughter to various military sites around the country, including the USS Intrepid, which is now a museum docked on Manhattan's West Side. Veterans groups around the country hold ceremonies every year in December on the day that President Franklin Roosevelt predicted would 'live in infamy' and prompted America's entry into World War II. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Onee-kei is about looking pulled together - cute, but still practical - and features combinations of clothes to wear to the office or after hours. S Cawaii, Vivi, JJ, Classy, and Glamorous are Japanese magazines that reflect the current trends. Other titles, like Kera or Pretty Style reflect different versions of the same thing. As with most fashion magazines, however, all the titles adjust depending on the dominant trends.


These magazines have one major difference from their American and British counterparts - though Elle, Vogue Nippon, and the other usual suspects all have Japanese versions of their magazine - these glossies are really just look books... page after page of how to put together stylish outfits, a little advice on hair and makeup, and some small sections (food and lifestyle) near the very end. As you can see, many of the pages revolve around a theme, and different ways to play to a trend.


(They also feature handheld gaming systems as a fashion accessories. And run ads with women playing games. I love this.)


Clothes geared toward the office are more functional, but planning a striking outfit for going out is apparently the fashion equivalent to preparing for war. (I'm also wondering what's beneath the orange jacket - perhaps the tiniest LBD on the planet?)


The day wear and casual items are often basic - simple tops, jeans, shoes, many of which readers can obtain state-side. But it's the pairings (and attitude of the models) that keeps it fascinating.


Models are rarely seen jumping, and are often posed in sexy or goofy positions, in a variety of locations around town. This shot leans artistic - however, S Cawaii is also known for having its models give sexyface on one page and then stick out their tongues in a teasing gesture in the next.


Looking through the merchandise can get frustrating. I would love to rock that Sesame Street cardigan.


Domani magazine is on the edge of onee-kei style - it typically features professional career women of means (ads for high end brands are dominant), and women who are in their 20s, 30, and 40s. Despite being out of the general age range for onee-kei (which generally stops in the mid-twenties), the glossy still has the same visual aesthetic, just more work (and luxury) focused.


Domani demonstrates how a look can go from casual to pulled together with simple accessories, or perhaps a change of shoe. This is helpful to those of us inclined to be non creative with our daily wardrobes. Especially, if you're like me and unemployment/working from home/working in a casual environment means you tend to forget how to dress when you need to go somewhere.


The look books often take a trend - like the no collar jacket, and provide ideas on multiple ways to incorporate the style.


Accessories are often given full focus, like the studded leggings that make a plain dark gray top and denim shorts more visually stimulating.


The moderate but unusual pairings are a good reminder to try being less conservative with both clothes and accessories: A leopard print shoe would work with a variety of looks.


Another reason to love J-fashion mags? The freebies, which are often bundled into the magazine. (I am currently wearing the star socks shown.) Over the years S Cawaii has also gifted me a tote bag which says "I heart Moussy" and a small red pouch with black skulls on it that I use as a makeup bag.


"Thou shalt be fly" is the onee-kei philosophy when it comes to fingernails - they are often an artistic extension of your outfit. Interested in recreating these in the U.S.? It will be tough, I warn you. But if you really like these nail designs, the best way to get them (and keep costs down, lest you find yourself with a $100 manicure) follow on the next slide.


(1) Embrace the two finger design. Pick whichever art you like the most and ask for that on two fingers, with a more basic complementing design. (2) Bring a picture and look for a nail tech who is interested in learning the design. (I sometimes sweeten the deal by offering to let them see all the designs in the book. Scanning color copies also works.) (3) Have your own tools on hand - most places do not stock much beyond colors and rhinestones. Nail accessories can be found in specialty stores, online, and in craft stores (some of the designs you see on nails are actually stencils or small charms. (4) Tip well.


With a little patience and skill, some designs are achievable at home, with some effort.


While some magazines prefer to dazzle with designers, S Cawaii lets you know there is no shame in going faux. They even announce the "fake wool coat" the model is wearing.


Sure, these glossies focus a lot on attainable fashion, but they occasionally build in fantastic images. The nod to Alice in Wonderland is fabulous, yet the elements of the outfit are surprisingly wearable.


This isn't my style at all, but it's cute.


Unfortunately, as time goes on, the onee-kei magazines are absorbing more and more American style. Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan and Lauren Conrad are taking up page space (in keeping with onee gal style, which places a heavy focus on celebrity) and twelve dollars is a lot to pay for fashion I see for free.

[Tokyo, December 4. Image via Getty]

Alena Leonova of Russia performs during the short program of the women's competition in the ISU Grand Prix Final figure skating in Tokyo on December 4, 2009. Leonova came third with 61.60 points. AFP PHOTO/Toru YAMANAKA (Photo credit should read TORU YAMANAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Tokyo, November 25. Image via Getty]

French artist Alice Daquet in a huge balloon prepares for her performance at the opening ceremony of the art festival of 'No Man's Land' located at the former office building of the French embassy in Tokyo on November 25, 2009. Some 70 artists will display their works at the festival from November 26 until January 31, 2010. AFP PHOTO/Kazuhiro NOGI (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Tokyo, November 25. Image via Getty]

A Model displays a weddingdress during a collection of British designer Vivienne Westwood at a boxing stadium in Tokyo on November 25, 2009. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

[Tokyo, November 24. Image via Getty]

Campaign girls Erika Imai (L) and Rina Nagahisa display lottery tickets and a giant mock ticket to advertise for the 300 million yen (3 million USD) Year End Jumbo Lottery outside a Tokyo ticket booth (background) on November 24, 2009. Thousands of punters queued up for tickets in the hope of becoming a millionaire in what was become an annual event. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

[Tokyo, November 23. Image via Getty]

A mother holds her daughter under yellow ginkgo trees in Tokyo on November 23, 2009. Local residents came out to admire some 150 ginkgo trees displaying their autumnal colors along the tree-lined street. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

[Yokohama, Japan; November 15. Image via Getty]

An owner holds up her rabbit wearing a tartan suit during a rabbit fashion contest at the Rabbit Festa in Yokohama city in Kanagawa prefecture, suburban Tokyo on November 15, 2008. Some 8,000 rabbit lovers visited the annual two-day event. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

[Tokyo, November 13. Image via Getty]

Kazumi Tsuchida, 69, who lost her father in the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack, requests a handshake with a staff member of the US embassy in Tokyo as she stages a demonstration to send the letter included messages from two atomic bomb victims for US President Barack Obama in front of the US embassy on November 13, 2009. Survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II delivered a letter to the US embassy demanding that Obama work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons. AFP PHOTO/Kazuhiro NOGI (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the game creator, opines:

From a social point of view, his experience is also interesting. He believes women are partly escaping into fantasy because they cannot find suitably heroic partners in real life. Capcom's samurai groupies may be the corollary of a widely discussed trend in Japan, that of "grass-eating men", who eschew the typical male trappings of cars and big salaries, and may prefer shopping and fashion to sex.

The Economist article refers to "grass eating men" which sounds a bit strange. The more commonly translated term is "herbivore men," (read: meat as a stand-in for manliness) and the Times of London explains why these men who are choosing a nontraditional lifestyle are capturing the attention of a nation:

Two phrases have been coined to describe them: soshokukei danshi or "herbivorous males", and Ojo-man – or "girly men".

Definitions vary, but the new herbivores could be described as metrosexuals without the testosterone. Although most of them are not homosexual they have in common a disdain for the traditional accoutrements of Japanese manhood, and a taste for things formerly regarded as exclusively female. Girly men have no interest in fast cars, career success, designer labels and trophy women. Instead, they hold down humble jobs, cultivate women as friends rather than conquests and spend their free time shopping at small boutiques and pursuing in Japan what is regarded as a profoundly feminine pastime: eating cakes.

(Aside: When Anna N. covered this earlier, some people expressed confusion about the reference to eating cakes as a feminine past time. Now, I'm just a pop culture junkie, not an expert on Japan, but the idea that men don't eat sweets is a prominent one. In addition to Men's Pocky, a less-sweet version of the popular snack, a popular trope is to show a man eating sweets to demonstrate how he is strange, different, or child-like. In the series Ouran High School Host Club, Honey-chan is a male host with a sweet tooth - along with a babyish demeanor.)

The Times continues, noting that this new take on masculinity is starting to impact heterosexual dating:

Japanese women, according to Professor Yamada's research, have not caught up. Two out of five say they wish to marry a man who earns at least 6 million yen (£40,000) a year - but such men make up only 3.5 per cent of the eligible population. The result of such unrealistic female expectations is a generation of men, and women, who may never marry and have children.

About half of men aged 20 to 34, he says, are unmarried and only 20 per cent of them have girlfriends. Thirty per cent, according to Professor Yamada, have never had a girlfriend in their lives. For a country like Japan, which already has a shrinking population, this is a disaster.

So, back to the Economist article. The article shifts focus from the video game's popularity to the larger, societal implications:

The phenomenon may also reflect a bigger issue: young women failing to find marriage partners. Since the 1970s the number of men and women marrying in their 20s and early 30s has fallen sharply, which is one of the main reasons the birth rate has fallen so low. It is largely the result of poor job prospects for men-and for women who marry. It will also have a severe impact on Japanese GDP in coming years.

However, this dynamic has been in play for a few years now. Much has been written about "freeters," a generation of people who are opting out of employment, or who cannot find gainful employment, and how that impacts the romantic and home lives of a generation of young Japanese professionals. In addition, due to traditional structures in Japanese society, women looking for men of means isn't a sign of shallowness - it is a reaction based in the grim job prospects for women, normally low paying temporary jobs or jockeying for a position in a glamor industry.

And with this much stress, can you really blame women for finding an escape in mythical lands with sword wielding hotties?

They Need Another Hero [Economist]
Girly Men Of Japan Just Want To Have Fun [Times Online]
Ouran High School Host Club [Wikipedia]
Youth Employment In Japan's Economic Recovery: ‘Freeters' And ‘NEETs' [Japan Focus]
Young Japanese Women Vie For A Once-Scorned Job [NY Times]

Earlier: Japan's "Girly Men" Choose Cakes Over Consumerism

Related:
Of "Wacky" Japan and the Myth Of The Other [Racialicious]

According to the Times of London, Japan is in the midst of a veritable explosion of such "girly men," men who don't live up to traditional Japanese standards of masculinity. Of this group, also called "herbivorous males," Richard Lloyd Parry writes,

Definitions vary, but the new herbivores could be described as metrosexuals without the testosterone. Although most of them are not homosexual they have in common a disdain for the traditional accoutrements of Japanese manhood, and a taste for things formerly regarded as exclusively female. Girly men have no interest in fast cars, career success, designer labels and trophy women. Instead, they hold down humble jobs, cultivate women as friends rather than conquests and spend their free time shopping at small boutiques and pursuing in Japan what is regarded as a profoundly feminine pastime: eating cakes.

And supposedly they're a Big Deal. A Japanese designer is marketing a line of skirts and "lacy tops" for men. Another company is selling a line of men's bras, although apparently some gender divisions persist — Parry describes the bras as "designed with manly simplicity, free of lace and frills." And Megumi Ushikubo, author of Herbivorous Girly Men Are Changing Japan thinks two thirds of Japanese men between 20 and 34 have "herbivorous tendencies."

Of course, half the point of a trend piece is to record and perhaps stir up terror at the trend's inevitable destruction of society, and Japan's girly men are no exception. Parry quotes sociologist Masahiro Yamada, who says, "I worry that herbivorous boys are the future of Japan. As young Japanese men become more timid and more averse to taking risks, it will affect the energy and vitality of the society." But the epidemic of girly men, if epidemic it is, may have more specific and more interesting consequences than a loss of "vitality." Slate's Alexandra Harney was actually on the case back in June, and she writes that "grass-eating men are alarming because they are the nexus between two of the biggest challenges facing Japanese society: the declining birth rate and anemic consumption."

Girly men are supposedly uninterested in sex, though some speculate that they simply have bad "communication skills" caused by too many video games and not enough family interaction. Whatever the cause, no sex means no babies, and Japan is suffering because of its shrinking population. Girly men also don't buy a lot of expensive things. It's interesting that a love for "designer labels" is seen in Japan as traditionally male — Harney says herbivores are "more likely to buy little luxuries than big-ticket items." Much like America's vaunted post-recession frugality craze, girly men are scary for Japan's economy — if they won't buy expensive shit, who will?

When you look at it this way, being a girly man seems like a kind of rebellion. Self-identified herbivore Yoto Hosho tells Harney, "We don't care at all what people think about how we live," and his lifestyle does seem like a reaction against certain social pressures. Make money, buy cars, have a kid — it's a pretty familiar prescription for a mainstream existence, whether here or in Japan, but its steps may be geared more toward a particular idea of a healthy society than toward actual personal fulfillment. After all, shoring up a declining birthrate doesn't sound like the most compelling reason to have a family. And now that making money has become more difficult for Japanese men, it's no wonder they're not as enthusiastic about spending it. Maki Fukasawa, an editor and writer who coined the term "herbivorous male," says,

When the economy was good, Japanese men had only one lifestyle choice: They joined a company after they graduated from college, got married, bought a car, and regularly replaced it with a new one. Men today simply can't live that stereotypical 'happy' life.

Sound a lot like what's happening in America. The recession and dwindling job security have made certain male roles — provider, consumer, progenitor — more difficult to step into. In Japan, men are responding by rejecting those roles. Maybe rather than trying to return to a bygone era of buying and babies, Japan and America should accept a more frugal, perhaps smaller population and new definitions of success. The girly men, it seems, already have.

Girly Men Of Japan Just Want To Have Fun [TimesOnline]

Related: The Herbivore's Dilemma [Slate]

[Tokyo, October 27. Image via Getty]

Employees for Japanese eyewear maker Volks display toy sunglasses designed with a '2010' logo to celebrate the next year at the annual 'International Optical Fair Tokyo' (IOFT 2009) on October 27, 2009. Over 500 Japanese and foreign optical makers were to exhibit their latest products at Asia's largest eyewear trade show on October 27-29. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

[Tokyo, October 25. Image via Getty]

An anti-fur protesters gather during an anti-fur demonstration parade in Tokyo on October 25, 2009. AFP PHOTO / TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA (Photo credit should read TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, October 21. Image via Getty]

A Protestor demonstrates outside the Japanese embassy in central London, on October 21, 2009. Demonstrators protested on Wednesday outside the Japanese embassy against the slaughter of dolphins to coincide with the release of a documentary 'The Cove'. AFP PHOTO/Shaun Curry (Photo credit should read SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images)

The Japan Swimming Federation is cracking down on athletes who think they're rock stars. In addition, male and female swimmers are not supposed to sneak into each others' rooms.

It seems like whenever uniforms are involved, it's human to try and stand out — assert your own identity. Basketball players sometimes get heavily tattooed; Catholic schoolgirls often tweak their skirts.

The question is: Is it more important to play by the rules? Or be yourself? In Japan, at least, it seems that representing the country respectfully is the ideal… But who doesn't want to root for the rebel?

Japan Pours Cold Water On Fashionista Swimmers [Reuters]

[Tokyo, September 21. Image via Getty]

Elderly people work out with wooden dumb-bells in the grounds of a temple in Tokyo on September 21, 2009 to celebrate Japan's Respect-for-the-Aged-Day. The number of elderly people in Japan has hit a record high this year, with one in every four women aged 65 or older. The ratio of elderly people among women came to 25.4 percent, topping 25 percent for the first time, while the ratio for men was 19.9 percent. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)

[Tokyo, September 15. Image via Getty]

TOKYO - SEPTEMBER 15: Children treat a mock patient as they play the roles of dentists during their work experience activities at KidZania on September 15, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. KidZania offer children more than 50 career experiences with parents not allowed to help their children during 30 minutes long activities. Kidzania have been fully booked every day since its opening in 2006. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

[Tokyo, September 15. Image via Getty]

TOKYO - SEPTEMBER 15: A child makes a hamburger as she plays the role of a hamburger shop clerk during their work experience activities at KidZania on September 15, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. KidZania offer children more than 50 career experiences with parents not allowed to help their children during 30 minutes long activities. Kidzania have been fully booked every day since its opening in 2006. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)