'Cool Japan' struts the runways at Fashion Week in Tokyo

FASHION KEY TO "COOL JAPAN"

Though much of the drive behind Cool Japan appears to have been inspired by South Korea's backing of soft power that helped boost its music industry to global fame, the campaign is much broader than simply entertainment.

"(Fashion) isn't just one pillar of Cool Japan, it's right at the center," said Yuichi Moronaga, deputy director of the Creative Industries Division at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

"The image of Cool Japan is that it's all about anime and manga but what we want to sell is things and services. What's really most accessible in this sense is fashion and interior design, the miscellany of living."

Among the attractions of Japanese fashion are its materials, ranging from buttons and ribbons to the fabrics and styling of the traditional kimono, the hallmark of designs by Tamae Hirokawa of "Somarta", whose Monday show launched the week.

"Japan has the culture of layering going back very far, so I embraced that history as well as the belt or 'obi' in the style that the samurai used," Hirokawa told Reuters.

While Japanese designers continue to take aim at China and its huge market, many are also turning to the rest of the vast Asian continent with its growing middle class, in particular Indonesia and Singapore.

"Asian customers and buyers are invited here to see things themselves and they then spread this to their respective countries," said Nobuyuki Ohta, chief buyer at Matsuya, a major Tokyo department store, as well as head of the Cool Japan fund.

The growing attention paid to Japanese fashion overseas, helped by live Internet streaming of many Fashion Week events, allows it to fulfill a key role in providing a showcase for younger designers. Of the 37 brands showing in Tokyo, five were making their Fashion Week debut.

"There are really good materials in Japan, really skilled people ... If you make something stylish, it can appeal to the world," Ohta said. "How to provide them with a platform, how to thrust them forward - this is the job of Cool Japan."

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