Like Japanese Men’s fashion, Japanese women’s fashion is also incredibly stylish; I have actually never seen such a large group of people dress so nicely before.  Before I met Japanese girls and came to Japan, I believed that the European style was the best in the world, but these girls have made me change my mind.  What I have noticed with Japanese women’s fashion is that the style is extremely “girly”.  The Japanese men might not fit the usual masculine stereotype, but the Japanese women sure fit the feminine stereotype; they not only fit the stereotype, they might actually go overboard with it.  In the social world, femininity is seen as fragile, gentle, and sensitive.  Pinks, reds, and light colors have also been used in fabric to represent femininity. Also, skirts, dresses, high heels, bows, and other hair accessories have been used as a part of women’s fashion to distinguish the difference between men and women.  

In Japan, almost all of the girls I have seen so far dress this way.

Almost everywhere you turn you can find women wearing dresses or skirts.  They may either wear them with tights or pantyhose, but it seems they wear these outfits no matter where they go or what they are doing.  In America, most women only dress like this when they go out to certain places to look presentable.  Americans have started to dress down even when going to school, wearing more comfortable things such as jeans and a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, or yoga pants.  When girls in Japan go to school they dress up and wear cute outfits, even if it is somewhat uncomfortable.

If we look at this picture of my Japanese friends (above) we can see that they tie their outfits together nicely with cute flats, skirts, a dressy shirt, and my one friend is wearing a cardigan.

We can compare this picture of my American friends with the other picture of my Japanese friends.  This picture (above) is of us going out for a party with friends.  Some girls just wear a t-shirt and jeans and if they want to wear something over their outfit, they wear a sweatshirt instead of a nice cardigan, like shown in this picture. 

Most women in Japan wear high heels on a daily basis for both the style and to make themselves look taller.  It is also fashionable to wear high heels with lace socks.  What shocks me, however, is that women here wear high heels everywhere.  Let me just point out that I love high heels because the way they look and the way they make me look, but wearing them for a long period of time becomes a pain.  The other day, I went to Universal Studios Japan and saw so many women wearing high heels.  In America, when people go to theme parks, they wear comfortable clothes and tennis shoes, but in Japan it seems that a high heel is a proper shoe for anywhere.  This picture of high heels (above) was taken on halfway up a mountain that we had to climb in Uji city.  I even by accidently wore high heels on that day and my feet hurt so bad that I couldn’t finish climbing the mountain; I don’t understand how these women go through with it.

(In this picture, I wore something comfortable to run around in while my Japanese friends wore skirts)

When I first arrived and asked my friends why everyone dressed so nicely, their answer was simply “Because this is Japan”.    Then I asked my friend Arisa Tanimoto why all the women here dressed so cute, she told me that they have the pressure of society to look this way.  “For me, dressing up nice is kind of stressful because I always have to think about the coordination, appearance, and have to catch the trends in fashion.  In some cases, if we neglect to dress up, some people are discriminated because they are considered that they cannot fit in harmony.” I then asked, “Do you think American girls have more freedom to dress how they want?”  With her response being “I think so, they absolutely have freedom.  The reason they wont dress up everyday is because of cultural differences.  If their society is like Japan, they will dress up everyday.  But in American Culture, they dress up for a purpose like going out, dates, or parties.”  This is why women here go through the pain of looking pleasant, to fit in with the feminine stereotype. 

                                                           
            

                                                                 

 It seems as though that things are opposite when it comes to comparing Japanese and American fashion.  In America, the men are pressured into the stereotype of masculinity while American women have more room to roam outside of the feminine stereotype, whereas in Japan, men can bend the masculine stereotype and women have the pressure to fit their stereotype perfectly.

Though these women may be stuck in this feminine stereotype, I still believe that women in Japan dress beautifully.  They present themselves well to others, and I believe they gain self-confidence because of it.  It seems that American girls, depending on the place, have been letting themselves go when it comes to fashion.  Iv made it my goal to dress more presentable like a Japanese women.