Author Archive

New Book Releases　－　Uniqlo Syndrome

Kensuke Kojima, the author of this book, is a prominent fashion business consultant and a pillar of the Japanese fashion industry. His achievement of surviving as a top consultant in the rapidly changing fashion industry for 30 years is remarkable. He is a perspicacious observer with solid analytical abilities, and has sometimes even been the one to sound the alarm to the industry.

Tadashi Yanai and Kojima have something in common – they belong to the same baby-boom generation. When Yanai took over his family business, Ogori Shoji Co., Ltd. (which ran a menswear store in a local city in Yamaguchi Prefecture) after graduating from Waseda University, Kojima, who graduated from Keio University, was already an up-and-coming fashion business consultant in Tokyo.

Since then, they have each contributed to the Japanese fashion industry in their own different ways. Coincidentally, they live within a stone’s throw of each other in Tokyo.

Kojima wrote this book from an impartial viewpoint, presenting Tadashi Yanai, Uniqlo and the Japanese fashion industry with a professional touch. Uniqlo Syndrome is not like other books that enjoy popularity with the public. It is a unique publication that does not seek to create a cult or to play the role of a Uniqlo know-how handbook, nor is it a business analysis of Uniqlo or a study on the management philosophy of Tadashi Yanai.

I recommend it to anybody who is interested not just in Uniqlo but also in the fashion business around the world. In particular, I believe it is required reading for employees of the Fast Retailing Group. Even though the book’s approach might be irreconcilable with the company’s corporate culture, it serves as a useful resource for understanding the true nature of the group’s strengths and weaknesses.

Makoto Kurita
Translator

Amazon Kindle Edition: Uniqlo Syndrome

Gothic & Lolita Club Event “Classic A la mode 02”

On Feb. 24th I visited for information gathering “Classic A la mode 02” a Gothic & Lolita Club event with specially extended site.This is an event with conventionalized beauty of Gothic and Lolita and drifting fantastic music, evoking the mood of a live salon in good old days. Read the rest of this entry »

Number of visitors to Japan Expo 09

How many visitors we had to Japan Expo 09.
This is not an official report, but local free paper METRO has reported the number of visitors as 164,000.
The number is record high, and played an incomparable role in attracting guests among the other similar events.
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Costume Playing of Miyavi in Japan Expo 09

This girl in the photo is my top choice among costume players I have seen here this year. She is playing the costume of Miyavi..
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We like Hime-Deko in Japan Expo 2009

Tokyo Kawaii★SHOP in Japan Expo 09 had a sale of Hime-kei decoration articles, worked out by Hearty&Hearty -hina in Fukuoka.

Hime-deco of pink furifuri is Japanese specialty but it supposedly originated from French court culture. I have interested in the way how French visitors would accept it.

Actually on the table it attracted visitors. They stopped curiously and came closer to look at it positively. They showed interest, trying opening and closing pochettes or compacts, but hardly opened the purse. Maybe the prices are a little higher than their budget. Read the rest of this entry »

“Hime-kei” found out in Design Festa

I have visited Design Festa opened in Tokyo Big Site.

Design Festa is an event, where artists in the world present, exhibit and sell their original works in free style. It takes place two times a year, and this is the 29th holding. There are no screening, and everybody can present his work, if it is his original one.
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Japan Pop Culture Festival

Japan Pop Culture Festival will take place at Maison de la culture du Japon a Paris (Japan Culture House in Paris),

Japan Culture House in Paris has opened in 1997 with 6 floors above ground, and 5 underground, to constantly introduce Japanese culture covering tea ceremony, flower arrangement, calligraphy, incense burning, martial arts, game of go, Japanese chess etc. Read the rest of this entry »

Gals save Japan!?

I have read “Gals save Japan!?” in a special edition of the magazine “BRUTUS”, introduced in Cool Japan Blog. Read the rest of this entry »

“Real Japan is cool” (From News paper Senken Shinbun)

A reporter’s article on Chibi Japan Expo in Marseille appeared in news paper Senken Shinbun (2nd, Apr.)

The following extract is the second half of the third article of a series “Real Japan is cool” titled “It’s now! Make a sale!”

“Kawaii!” cried grown people, too.

– “Japan Expo in Paris” organized by SEFA is an event of Japanese manga, animation and sub cultural goods gathered together in a site. Recently it shows remarkable growing. In the last September the event accepted 134,467 visitors, while three years ago the number of visitors was 41,000. Read the rest of this entry »

In TGV train – Participation in Chibi Japan Expo in Marseille

I have been in France for two weeks during and after Chibi Japan Expo Sud.
Though I had planed to send timely information to Apalog readers, I couldn’t find time until now, for various affairs, regrettably, have stop me doing it, and my mind didn’t have room for it.

I am now making this text in TGV, or French super express train.
(The entire picture of Chibi Japan Expo in Marseille is available in Apparel-web, to which I have contributed it.) Read the rest of this entry »

A Meeting with Representatives of SEFA

Now I am in Marseille.
Yesterday I had a first meeting with the representatives of SEFA. They are Jean-Francois DUFOUR, Thomas SIRDEY and Sandrine DUFOUR.

I have made some proposals. They were very quick of apprehension and I have found congenial spirit in them. Read the rest of this entry »

A Visit of Ms. Sae Cibot of SEFA-EVENT to our Company

Sae CIBOT of Societe d’Exploitation des Festivals Asiatique (SEFA), the company which organizes Japan Expo, has visited our office. CHIGIRA, head of the company Apparel Web, and WADA, besides me, welcomed her.

Hitherto Sae Cibot was a coordinator to promulgate Japanese pop culture in France. She worked in DELCOURT, special publishing firms of Japanese mangas, and has concerned herself in the French translation of the manga “NANA”.

She has engaged in the consulting of the TF1 Video and Les Films du Paradoxe in the imaging field. What’s more, she has her own label “soundicious” and had a hand in the production of MUCC.
Appreciated her multifaceted career, she has join the company SEFA in charge of Japanese-related fields. Read the rest of this entry »

Dream of Sanuki 2008 in Paris

I received an email from Ms. Mie Ozaki, who is teaching French in Kagawa College.

Shuddering in the recent cold wave I am preparing for the next year presentation. A performance of an avant-garde calligraphy and a presentation of Japanese drums are in perspective.
I am fumbling my way this time as I was last time. I will send you a project paper as soon as I finish it.
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ENCHANTEMENT- Japan-France cultural exchange through manga

I visited the company Enchantement in Osaka, a company which does business for Japan-France cultural exchange with manga as an axis.

Its company mission is to “enchant world people and contribute to the happiness and development of the human being”. It records 9 times in the participation in the Japan Expo and other manga-related events in France with vending booths. Read the rest of this entry »

H&M Ginza shop and Tokyo Disneyland

It is reported recently that the world economy is on the verge of economic crisis. But I have come across a ever more people in Ginza street.

One of my friends whom accidentalｌy I met there said that the target of the people were the newly opened H&M shop. The people have to wait for 40 minutes in a queue to be able to enter la shop, though the appearance of the shop was a month ago. Read the rest of this entry »