Ganguro is a subculture I witnessed first-hand while living in Japan. I was utterly shocked when seeing a few girls who adopted the culture enter the train at Shinsaibashi subway station in downtown Osaka. I couldn’t stop staring at them. It was as if they were from another planet. Nobody else paid any attention to them but as a newcomer to Japan and Asia, I was shocked to see Japanese women so out there with their fashion choices and skin alternation.

The Ganguro subculture is believed to have started in the mid-1990s as a fashion trend among young Japanese women to buck the social norms of the Japanese standards of beauty. Typically in Japan, the women aim to have pale skin, dark hair and wear very moderate make-up. The Ganguro girls completely go against that ideology and spend hours in the tanning salon, dye their hair in outlandish colors, and wear make-up that would make a Lady Gaga blush.

I found an interesting video on Youtube about their lives and wanted to get the HHT’s community’s thoughts on this dying subculture. What are your thoughts on the Ganguro? Leave a comment below.