The Grauniad wrote:Tokyo's fashion tribes: a guide
Tokyo's vibrant fashions are as much a feature of the city as its Michelin-starred restaurants. It's almost impossible to keep up with the fast-changing trends but here's an introduction to some of the main tribes.
The outlandish and vibrant fashionistas of Tokyo move forward at such a pace that it's almost impossible to document them without instantly falling out of date. However, there are a number of groups – tribes, or "kei" in Japanese – that have managed to evolve while staying relatively true to their origins. Members of these tribes can number into the hundreds of thousands, though more commonly they reach a few thousand youngsters before disappearing entirely.
Many kei can be traced back to the Harajuku district, at the centre of which is Takeshita Dori, a street that is to Tokyo what Carnaby Street was once to London (only with added dayglo cuteness), and this should be the first destination for any determined follower of fashion.
Here are a selection of the tribes that you would have a hard time missing on any trip to the Japanese capital.
The Rollers of Yoyogi Park
Before we begin, let's get one thing straight. These guys aren't rockabillies, even though they might look old enough to have witnessed Gene Vincent in his heyday. They prefer to be known as "Roller-Zoku" (the Roller Family), and they take the business of dancing to old rock'n'roll numbers very seriously indeed (on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, near the gates of Yoyogi Park, without fail). It is thought that the Roller-Zoku have been a part of the Yoyogi furniture since the early 1990s, when a rockabilly revival swept parts of Japan. With their receding hairlines bullied into thinning quiffs, they may not look particularly threatening, but woe betide anyone who tries to join their antiquated dance. Simply do as the massed crowds surrounding them do: watch agog, but from a safe distance.
...nado nado...