UPDATE: CScout Japan Chief Sven Kilian put in his two cents on the cute of Cool Japan recently in the Financial Times of Germany (German only). Click HERE to read.
The Yomiuri Shinbun has reported that Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has recently declared three of Japan’s pretty young things to be Pop Culture Ambassadors of the country…at least for their respective niche fashion groups.
Models Misako Aoki, Yu Kimura, and Shizuka Fujioka have been drafted to represent the lolitas, gyaru, and high school girls of the Nation of Cute, and travel the world promoting Japanese pop culture.
First stop: The upcoming Japan Fest in Bangkok, followed by a summertime stint at the Japan Expo in Paris.
Besides being a clear opportunity for bureaucrats to hang out with young girls, MOFA’s move is one of many in a government movement to promote Cool Japan, the idea that modern Japanese culture can be boxed up, branded, and exported for consumption. In many ways this is true, in the form of manga, anime, video games, and fashion, but these have been highly organic trends that came from the bottom up. Is government truly able to push Japanese trends onto the world to become global trends?
Michael is CEO and Co-Founder of the 
in my opinion, this could have both positive and negative ramifications: on the plus side, all-things-japanese become cooler across the world!
on the down side, all-things-cute is ALL japan will be known for in some parts of the world! what about the old culture, the rock music, etc.?
i just fear for the mistreatment of the japanese “dignity” as it sails the world w/ these 3 lovely ladies…
i don’t like the icons chosen. I mean, I’ve met different types of Japanese women and can’t there be anyone else to be used as the icons of JAPAN. If they are representing JAPAN in terms of cuteness, can’t they be first cute? Or is this japan’s preferences and meaning on the word cute? These icons would depict Japan, so if physically, this is what they would mean by cute, in a general sense, cute, lolitas and gyaru, high schoolers in Japan are like them. Is that really it? o.O
I agree with Ioonarkiyu! No offense but I don’t consider them very cute… I don’t want to be mean, but all of my japanese friends are waaayy cuter than them. Ambassadors of cute should look cute, shouldn’t they?