Japan's Street Fashion Promotes Consumerism...

With the number of subcultures in Japan's street fashion, I'm surprised as to how teens are able to keep up with the latest trends. Where do they get the money to buy the necessary clothes and accessories that's required to fit into the specific groups? According to Yuniya Kawamura in "Japanese Teens as Producers of Street Fashion," teens had to be affiliated with a certain street style group or they wouldn't be accepted by other kids (788). As we all know, the teenage years is the most difficult stage in life because we all wanted to be accepted, therefore, we would buy the necessary "symbols of membership affiliation" (Kawamura 788) to show people what group of people we belonged to or even simply to show others that we are not outcasts. "Some even use the street fashion as a mean to avoid standing out from the crowd," (Cameron 184) since fitting in was a priority for teenagers. Therefore, it is inevitable that a large contribution of consumerism in Japan would be from the teens since they are the ones supporting the economy through purchasing goods. There's more than 20 subcultures in Japan's street fashion, there's even a new tribe created that's girl's style fashion for guys. This new group is promoting Drag fashion. With such a large variety of trends, these teens have a lot of clothes to buy. The need to rebel against social norms comes with a price, and that's the amount of money one will have to pay for the clothes.

As for the compact challenge, I gave up eating out, buying Starbucks product, Jamba Juice, Boba drinks, and soda for Lent. This should help me save some money, and keep me away from eating out. This would also help me stay at home to cook. When I'm buying things, I always ask myself whether I really need it or if I could simple do well without it.

<3 Annie Tan

Blog #8

Kawamura, Yuniya. "Japanese Teens as Producers of Steet Fashion." Current Sociology. Davis: SAGE Productions, 2006. 784-801.

Outside Source:
Cameron, Don. "Off-the-Rack Identities: Japanese Street Fashion Magazines and the Commodification of Style." Japanese Studies. September 2000. 179-187.

Image:
http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/imgs/media/Japanese_Street_Fashion.jpg