Invisible TOKYO

Modern-day Tokyo culture has embarked

upon an exceedingly naive and melancholic world.

Japan's entertainment industry revolves

around "girls' culture."

Things that are visible to our eyes

and things that aren't.

What connections were made

through social networking services?

The coding of humanity

is apparent in between

information and communication.

Xis diversity intensifies, individuality gets lost.

A connected yet closed world.

Each world intersects the other.

It depends every time, but...

sometimes...

I think about how I'm going to die.

Thoughts like...

will I die because...

of fire or water? Which is better?

And what else?

Where do I go after death?

There's Earth, then there's outer space.

When a spaceship launches,

it travels between Earth and space.

I wonder what goes on there.

I wonder if there's a membrane of some sort.

Those are some of my thoughts.

I ask, "Did you watch TV last night?"

And...

talk about our...

favorite actors.

"He's starring in this one next, right?"

Things like that. It's all pretty trivial.

Parallel worlds were established in each community

Diversion of various notions

Along with development of individualism

contributed to the great variety of this invisible world.

As connections happen with social networking services,

the real world gets divided, developing tribal sectors.

The world where all information

and values are parallel.

Music producer, Tetsuya Komuro.

He produced "Globe" in the 90's

and pioneered today's girls' culture.

One of the leading musicians in Japan.

Akira Morikawa.

A pioneer who invented LINE

and transformed the way of communication.

Noriyoshi Murakami.

Executive producer of Tokyo Girls Collection.

Representative director of W Media Inc.

Elaiza Ikeda, a "CanCam" exclusive model and actress

Her signature "Elaiza pose" and progressive use of SNS became

a popular topic, driving girls' culture and making her an iconic figure of her time.

Kotomi Kuga.

A typical high school girl living in Tokyo.

She lives with her parents and her older sister.

Well...

I started as a producer in 1993.

That's the year I began to pursue it seriously.

Of course,

it all started in Shibuya. It was all centralized there.

Somehow or another.

The World of Tetsuya Komuro

I felt the liveliness.

It went on from '93 to '94.

And after that,

it spread from Shibuya to Tokyo, to the Kanto region.

Then further out to surrounding prefectures,

and then spread like wildfire

out to Kansai, Kyushu and all over the nation.

The rate it spread was far slower than today though.

I wouldn't call it scattered.

I think "spread like wildfire" is the best way to put it.

That's truly how it was.

During that time period,

touring was the norm, so...

whenever we visit each region, I noticed how

the wildfire spread from Tokyo.

I saw how those regions were trying to mimic Tokyo.

The reason I became a model...

Officially, I tell everyone

that I auditioned with my friend

when I was in junior high.

But in reality,

TV dramas about bullying were popular at the time,

so the act of bullying became popular.

I was actually pressured into auditioning.

A bully told me, "I'm auditioning and so will you since you'll fail at it."

I was forced to fill out the paperwork in front of everyone, submitted it

and here I am now.

The World of Elaiza Ikeda

I passed all three phases of the audition.

I cried when I passed the first phase because I got scared.

I cried after passing the second phase, terrified to tell my parents.

When I passed the third phase,

at that third phase level, I convinced myself that I had to do this.

I feel that way whenever I have my back against the wall.

When I got to the third phase, I was determined to pass.

So when I did, I cried tears of joy.

That was the start of my career.

Something unprecedented in the world

was created.

Earlier, I described it

as revolution and...

the existing fashion industry,

created by "adults,"

bound by rules and particular philosophies,

was replaced by more familiar, young female designers

and the sales staffs' wild enthusiasm

that influenced thousands.

That wild enthusiasm then spread to the audience,

creating this phenomenon.

The World of Noriyoshi Murakami

Tokyo Girls Collection is a fashion show

where the creators and the audience are closer

than any show in the world.

While the world's five greatest collections,

like Pret-A-Porter, showcase high-class ready-made clothes,

Tokyo Girls Collection showcases real clothes.

In reality, Tokyo Girls Collection

is a large 30,000-people show.

There, it's possible to,

the very next day or week,

purchase the same clothes you saw your favorite model wear at the show.

It's a lot more "self" involved here.

"Fashion" itself opened up

and is now widely praised and desired by everyone.

That is the revolution of fashion.

Everything was unleashed through real clothes.

Tokyo Girls Collection created this equal playing field.

Communication was something

that would disappear after it got out.

The World of Akira Morikawa

My goal is to make communication more and more fun.

The first social games were

an attempt to create a reason for people to communicate

through games, so I first ventured into games and as I gradually

integrated the communication aspect of it, it soon became a social game.

I then thought about what I could do to make this more than just "fun."

If communication was materialized and if that became a database for information,

it would make better records for the future.

I started Social Search, where information is gathered

and is searchable on a database.

So I was working on it in hopes of surpassing Google.

But Google's algorithms were hard to beat.

I was faced with the reality that algorithms were smarter than humans.

That's when the smartphone came out.

PC is Google's core nucleus,

so in order to create a search for smartphones,

I thought of a curation, NAVER Matome.

It compiles all sorts of social information from all over the world,

which is a different type of search compared to Google robots.

In other words, I thought compiling communication

was the next way to "search."

But we also needed to secure a communication platform.

One of the crucial communication tools was LINE.

Stamps became popular by chance.

I thought it would make

a more meaningful communication tool.

But when I first released Stamps, it went its own way.

We adapted

a richer way of communicating

to our senses than words.

I think that LINE itself

has its own intention in the country of Japan.

I'm curious about makeup too.

I started wearing it

since I began high school.

My friends around me were...

reluctant at first, saying that it'd irritate the skin

and we were too young to need it.

But, gradually, even the most reluctant girls started wearing it.

So that's how I started wearing makeup.

The World of Kotomi Kuga

I was a late-bloomer so my friends were my examples.

But my friends said they looked at magazines.

I only just started reading those magazines.

I just bought my second issue.

I buy Non-no...

and browse through Seventeen.

My phone's wallpaper

is set to Yuko Araki.

She's cute.

There's a teen magazine called Nicola,

and the final screening was done with full makeup, wardrobe and shooting.

Then we were told to collaborate right after that

with the other girls who passed.

We studied how to hold and present things, and I soon realized

that models couldn't get away with just being cute.

That was one of the first things I was taught.

Those skills I learned are very helpful now.

But, well, they were very strict, even though it was my first shoot.

"The logo's not showing.

Tilt it forward so the light doesn't reflect off it.

Can't see your clothes, your face." It was all, "Do this, do that."

It was intimidating.

When I was chatting

with other models who started at the same time as I did,