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Faces of Japanese Men

Here's what we know:

We know that you've seen a million pictures of serious faces in black suits.

We know you've seen pictures of samurai and yakuza and kamikaze pilots.

We also know you haven't seen some of the other faces of Japanese men.

jp_face_05.jpg (13009 bytes)

jp_facem_60.tif (268212 bytes)
I'm a photographer

There are about 19 billion people in Tokyo, 90% of which are in Shinjuku station even as you read this (okay, my numbers are a little high).
Did you really believe that they all look like stressed-out business men?

Well, don't feel too bad. Even the Japanese believe that they all look like stressed-out business men.
But they don't.

There are a fair number of Japanese men who are rejecting the 'traditional' uniforms of Japanese society.

The only problem is that they are sailing in uncharted territory.
The Japanese are very big on uniforms, both formal and informal.
A skier looks exactly like a skier.
A mother of three looks exactly like a mother of three.
Or as here, a photographer looks exactly like a photographer.

So when the uniform is taken away, all bets are off.
This isn't too much of a problem for Japanese women, since it's impossible for them to look bad in anything. They even look good in Hello Kitty tee-shirts.

Without uniforms, though, the Japanese man goes straight into freefall mode. 
Sometimes he recovers, sometimes he does not. Either way, it makes for interesting viewing.

jp_facem_53.tif (189422 bytes)
This is not a uniform