Two new Japanese web magazines that focus on lifestyle and fashion have come in the past two months: JAGR and THE FASHION POST (TFP).

JAGR is run by Brazilian Gui Martinez. Raised in Brazil and Britain, this photographer, DJ and model moved to Tokyo in 2009. He launched JAGR this March.

JAGR covers art, culture and life, but from a perspective that differs greatly from what the mainstream press chews out. It is blissfully eclectic, and off the chart. Features on JAGR Girls are interspersed with an article about international E-trash an Issey Miyake model shoot and music tracks by disco demon Dirk Bite.

The lay-out is thoroughly modern, very similar to how Pinterest and DAZED DIGITAL present data. Basically, a huge pinboard that flows into the netherworld of your screen.

JAGR reminds me a bit of DAZED’s early days. It is not so much about Japan, as born in Japan, from people all over the world. They’re a kind of modern low-budget reincarnation of the 50’s jet-set. Looks like JAGR may have the power to keep surprising us.

TFP was launched this month and is headed by Hidetaka Furuya, the director of the multi-disciplinary creative agency Northern Projects which also runs Tokyo street snap site DROP TOKYO.

TFP is a Japanese/English fashion and lifestyle journal, “born out of the desire to offer relevant and interesting fashion and lifestyle information.” It is still early days, but so far it appears to cover a fairly wide range of topics from both Japan and abroad. It features fashion news and trends, interviews with designers and creators, marketing and IT trends, and information about global fashion capitals.

It is still in beta mode, it seems, as the Travel, Library and Collections sections are not yet active. Because of Furuya’s track record and his studies at London College of Fashion and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, TFP especially looks like a very promising webmag that might be able to bridge the culture and language gap and attract both Japanese and foreign readers.

In the past, bilingual web magazines on Japanese culture have not been able to keep their head above water. Popular Japanese design magazine pingmag and its sister site PingMag MAKE went dead in 2008, and MEKAS, which had ambitions very similar to what TFP is aspiring to accomplish, went on its belly in 2009.

Let’s see how these two new web magazines make out. I wish them the very best!

As an interesting afternote, TFP interviewed JAGR’s Gui Martinez. The Tokyo scene feeding on itself…