I first met Yu Kimura at the beginning of 2009 when she was working as a model for the magazine “KERA.” Soon after that she became a representative of Japan as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Kawaii Ambassador. I was the producer for that project and together we travelled around the globe to Paris, Barcelona, Beijing, Chongqing and Guangzhou, using Harajuku fashion as a medium for promoting cultural exchange and diplomacy. In a manner of speaking, you could say she was my cultural diplomacy partisan.

The same Yu Kimura then decided to devote herself to a career as a solo artist and this year gave her first ever live performance at New Jersey’s AnimeNEXT. Performing for the first time, in the US of all places, is certainly no small feat, and even though I tend to go on about how the Japanese economy needs to get back-to-basics before taking on the world again, I felt it was really worth supporting Yu in this challenge she had set for herself.

The performance kicked off on Saturday night of June 6th, in front of a crowd of roughly two thousand.
Yu is quite a modest person and at times a spontaneous, somewhat airheaded Harajuku girl, and so when I saw her get up on stage, full of courage, it took me completely by surprise. That all-out attitude she showed during her live performance brought to mind a similar scenario I witnessed when she was the Kawaii Ambassador and modeling some Parisian styles for a fashion show we did together in Rome when she did an on-the-spot a cappella performance in front of a crowd of a thousand.
Watching a crowd of two thousand Americans getting completely absorbed in her songs was really something special to witness.

When Yu left the stage after her 20 minute performance she went and hid under the table where staff were selling her CDs. I will never forget those tears that she shed during that moment.

“Don’t come back to Japan unless you sell more than 300 CDs!”
Was the lighthearted jibe from her manager, but somehow we managed to fulfill said orders!

The lyrics for “We are adventures!!” one of the tracks compiled on her first single entitled, “Chozetsu Harajuku Shojo Kakumei” (Transcendental Harajuku Girl Revolution), were done by Aki Hara and the composition by Tomokazu Tashiro who together worked on the “Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” end theme song, “Harebare Yukai.” The sight of a crowd of Americans cheering and getting caught up in Yu’s catchy tunes is something I wish all Japanese could see.

It took guts for Yu Kimura to seal off any inhibitions or uncertainties and take on a major consumer country like the US, and I believe her spirit will become the light that guides the way for the Japanese economy of tomorrow.

Good luck, Yu-chan!

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