The World Seifuku Project – First Wave – Interview with Sakurai Takamasa（2/2）

2011.01.12

It is important to create a venue for cultural diplomacy and bring this culture to a new level.

●Chinese girls wearing CONOMi seifuku at a seifuku fashion show in China.

ab：asianbeat and CONOMi have teamed up to launch the World Seifuku Project to bring Japanese seifuku to the world. We are also taking many different kinds of seifuku fashion and seifuku culture around the world. What do you think of this project?

Sakurai: The project overlaps with my role promoting pop culture diplomacy throughout the world so I think it is a great project. It has my full support.
In promoting cultural diplomacy I think it is important to create a venue for culture and boost it to a higher level. For example, Lolita culture spread throughout the world, and it was boosted by the “Ochakai” (tea party) culture. If we can do the same sort of thing with seifuku, it would be great – and fun!

I think the collaboration between EVA and seifuku is a revolutionary event for the Japanese economy.

ab：In the first wave we are making seifuku from Evangelion, a Japanese pop culture icon. The concept of the project is to make the genuine article, with Sadamoto Yoshiyuki overseeing the production of the garment by CONOMi, a company with a reputation for making and distributing genuine seifuku.

Sakurai: When I first heard of this I thought it was a wonderful idea. There are many collaborations between anime and fashion, but not many that really understand the nature of each other’s industry. In this project they have created the seifuku based on a mutual respect, showing an important aspect of Japan’s ability to turn ideas into products. I myself am a big EVA fan and I’m really excited. Of course EVA is popular overseas as well, and from my experience of holding cultural events in 60 cities in 19 countries throughout the world (as of Jan. 2011), I know how popular it is.
I really want this collaboration between EVA and seifuku – two pillars of Japanese pop culture – to succeed in making the genuine item. I think you can say that this will have a revolutionary impact on the Japanese economy.

●Girls wearing CONOMi seifuku at a seifuku fashion show in Rome.

Sakurai Takamasa - at the forefront of bringing Japan’s kawaii culture to the world.

Contents Media Producer, author, journalist, managing director of Contents Street Inc. Chief Editor of iPhone magazine “Tokyo Kawaii Magazine” （ASCII Media Works）, World Cosplay Summit Executive Advisor, Chief Researcher at Kodansha/Kodansha BC China Management Laboratory.
Cultural diplomat producing events in 60 cities in 19 countries. Books include “Galapagos-ka no susume”(Kodansha), “’Suteru’ de shigoto wa umakuiku”(Diamond-sha), “Nihon wa anime de saiko suru ”(ASCII Shinsho), “Sekai no kawaii kakumei ” （PHP Shinsho）, and “Anime bunka gaiko ”(Chikuma Shinsho). Writes regular columns in the weekly magazine “ASCII” and Yomiuri Shimbun.

●twitter http://twitter.com/#!/sakuraitakamasa

⇒Back to 『World Wide EVA Special Feature』

⇒World Wide EVA 　Evangelion Feature

Previous | Next

First