JAPANESE STREETS: Japanese street fashion, street culture and catwalk fashion. Follow the fashion trends of Japan's trendy youths

Hair – (self) – N/A

Jacket – Yohji Yamamoto – (present) | Sweater – N/A – JPY 2,000 | Skirt – Panama Boy (shop) – JPY 1,500

Jacket – Yohji Yamamoto – (present) | Sweater – N/A – JPY 2,000 | Pants – N/A – JPY 2,500

Skirt – Panama Boy (shop) – JPY 1,500

Bag – N/A – JPY 3,000

Shoes – Jeffrey Campbell – JPY 15,000

With Nana

Facebook: Aki Nagaya

Listening to Sixx A.M.: This is Gonna Hurt

Inspired by the stunningly creative street fashion that exploded on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka in the late 1990’s, photo-journalist Kjeld Duits launched JAPANESE STREETS in 2002. This makes JS one of the first fashion blogs on the net, and the very first to cover Japanese street fashion.

Recent photos by Kjeld Duits:

I have a question, maybe stupid one but just can help it :) Maybe someone will be so nice to explain me what’s with those white masks and why are they so often to see on streets? Is this some kind of a fashion idea? Does it mean anything when someone is wearing such mask?

Monik :)
Apr 6, 2013 (3889 days ago)

@Monik: The majority of the people wear them for two reasons. They either suffer from hay fever (about 20% of the Japanese population does), or they have a cold and don’t want to give it to other people. And then there is a small number of people wearing masks as a fashion statement. Aki suffers from hay fever. Quite badly, actually.

Kjeld Duits (photographer)
Apr 6, 2013 (3888 days ago)

Mr. Duits – thank you so much for the exhaustive explanation and link. Too bad there are any other reasons of wearing those masks than fashion :( Hope Aki will recover soon :)

Monik :)
Apr 7, 2013 (3887 days ago)

@Monik: You are very welcome. I get this question a lot, actually—perhaps I should make a list of FAQs? Unfortunately, I don’t think you can recover from hay fever. But the hay fever season is about to end soon.

Kjeld Duits (photographer)
Apr 7, 2013 (3887 days ago)