Urban Clothing

Urban clothing in Japan as the rest of Asia began during the middle 19^th century when the Japanese youths started emulating the western culture. This spread so rapidly that by the beginning of the 21^st century it had already altered their original fashion into what is known today as 'street fashion’, a term used to describe a dress code where the wearer personally customizes the outfits by adopting a mixture of foreign secular and traditional trends using cloths made from materials bought from the stores. Currently there are many of these styles of dress in Japan with some of the styles being extremely similar to the haute couture seen on European catwalks.

Of late, Japanese hip-hop has sky-rocketed in the mainstream fashion industry with a popularity so influential that youths in Tokyo and other major cities are increasingly imitating their favorite American hip hop stars ranging from their dressing which is mainly characterized by over-sized clothes and jewels to darkening their skin with ultraviolet rays. This is usually done by tanning which they strongly believe is a freedom of expression which is hard or at times impossible to experience in their conservative ‘Japanese’ social role.

Hip-hop fans in Japan are tremendously into fashion and changing their fascia to imitate the hip-hop stars like Eminem, Tupac, Neneh Cherry, Mary J. TLC among others they are passionate about, whom they see on imported American music and videos. If you took a walk through the crowded streets like the Harajuku street in Tokyo you will realize that Japanese people have truly thrown out the once adorned Levi’s and adopted hooded sweatshirts, baggy pants, gigantic sports jerseys, and unlaced sneakers. This greatly venerated hip-hop outlook is supposedly believed to have originated from American prison life where shoelaces, belts and any other material which could be used to commit suicide or cause any harm during frequent confrontations common between prisoners were taken away for the inmates.

Another distinctive feature of urban clothing is graffiti, a term that refers to drawings or any other writings made on walls and other surfaces usually for the public to see have hovered to Japan. The development of this can be traced back to the late 1970’s in New York City where Taki, a young teenager inscribed his name on warren cars travelling through his locality. This was soon followed by a wave of many others in the city painting their names and other writings on walls, trains, subways, public bathrooms and parks among other public places. Rakugaki (Japanese name for graffiti) is quite common all over Japan where names of popular hip hop stars and other funny writings are inscribed on public bathrooms, parks, toilets and railway station.

All night hip hop clubs in Japan are perhaps the best places to observe hip-hop culture in action. These are commonly located in places like the famous Kanto in Yokahama and the red-light districts where large numbers of youths who once subscribed and adored the circumscribed Japanese culture have embraced the urban clothing most.