At a corporate event, apparently. Last night at the Tokyo International Forum, tiaras were passed out to the crowd and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas came on stage wearing one. In the middle of her set, she pulled out a digital camera – “a present from my Japanese friend Kumi Koda” – and said she wanted to take pictures of everyone wearing them.

This was kind of a joke, but you have to admit that there’s a geopolitical motive in having that Trends in Japan page up.

web-japan’s About Us page reads:
“Web Japan is sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and operated by a Japanese non government organization.”

It’s paid for, not written by, the Japanese government and so is not quite the mouthpiece of said entity.

And as for gyaru being dead – no – I don’t think so – bgyaru will exist as long as there’s Woofin’ Girl and Amuro Namie on the cover every other month, and gyaru is picking up in the United States as otaku female are growing up. (Of course, I suppose you could argue that it’s different, but the US adherents argue that the J-style must be copied exactly.) There’s some graduate assistant around here who wanders with a mini-tiara on her head…

The editorial team for Kojien had this discussion when they were putting together the new edition of the dictionary. They decided against including “kyabakura” (キャバクラ), even though it is in widespread use, because they couldn’t see how such places materially differed from clubs or snakku. The head of the team did recognize, however, that the term “kyabajou” (キャバ嬢) was in frequent use and intimated that it could be considered for inclusion in the next edition if it remains popular.

http://www.zakzak.co.jp/top/2008_01/t2008012522_all.html

The kyabakura originally occupied a legal grey area between cabarets and clubs, hence the name, which essentially allowed owners to run a hostess club for longer hours and at cheaper prices. They were described at the time as “happoshu” to the “beer” of a fully licensed club which is one reason why they used a different name. The girls in a kyabakura were also generally younger on average than girls in a hostess club and their “look” was apparently supposed to reflect that. One of the original entrepreneurs claimed in an interview that their hair and make-up was based on the style many girls favoured for coming-of-age-day or attending a wedding.

Because clubs and kyabakura became synonymous, the police began to enforce existing regulations more strictly which meant many kyabakura could not open past midnight or one o’clock. A few have tried to open up during the day but many have closed their doors. One popular idea has been to jump on the “girl’s bar” trend so around half of the 80 or so “girl’s bars” in central Tokyo are converted kyabakura. However, few, if any, of the girls working in such places favour the kyabajou look even if it was what they wore before so it does beg the question, as you say, of whether it has a role anywhere else.

Well,you never know.Check out the “Champ Road”!
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89-2007%E5%B9%B4-02%E6%9C%88%E5%8F%B7-%E9%9B%91%E8%AA%8C/dp/B000LE0RO4

“Teens road”is now gone.But it was more “fashion”oriented,because it was “Ladies(girl b0sozoku)”centered.
http://www.mbok.jp/item/item_127670409.html

I think your guess is right, that someone realized the kyabakura industry would pay for ads in this magazine. This seems counter-instinctive but magazines exist because of sponsors rather than because of readers.

Also is the comparison to bosozoku really the right one here?

Yes, because both are offshoots of the almost-permanent Yankii youth working-class subculture. Bosozoku were the 70s incarnation, while hosts and koakuma are the 21st century conspicuous consumption incarnation. Reading about their lifestyles, however, they are extremely similar in motivations, education levels, etc. I just read Ikuya Sato’s Kamikaze Biker again, and it’s funny how the bosozoku/yankii’s outlook on life is very close to the pages of Koakuma or even Popteen.

Kyabajou vs. Hostesses

Sure, but is one really less sketchy of a job than th e other? Maybe kyabajou need to look more outrageous, but they are still meeting their boyfriends on the job.

I can’t see this look really jumping out of Kyabakura. Where are you going to wear a tiara and lacy dress? The steps of 109?

Most importantly, economic pressure means more girls leave rural areas for Tokyo, but when they get to Tokyo, working in the mizushoubai industry is the only job that will pay them enough to actually live in Tokyo on their own. (They most likely have no real tertiary education.) The mizushoubai world is a big welfare system for the bottom of society. While its patronage is essentially a indirect form of class exploitation, if the whole industry collapses, that will knock out a pretty standard job for an increasingly large set of women at the lower stratum of society.