In late September, many cosplayers, often called “layers” in Japan, gathered in Chiba at the Tokyo Game Show, one of the largest video game expos in Japan.

Among the cosplayers was a 32-year-old company employee living in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, who comes from the United States. She made the costume and props on her own, turning herself into a character from the popular video game series Danganronpa. She posed for photos at the request of expo attendees.

“At first, I felt shy, but now I find it fun to have people take photos of me as my favorite character,” she said.

Several hundreds of thousands of cosplayers are believed to be living throughout the country. Many of them have other jobs and just cosplay for fun. In recent years, local governments, shopping malls and other entities are organizing an increasing number of cosplaying events, such as the World Cosplay Summit held in Aichi Prefecture every year, in a bid to attract tourists and young people.

Hacosta inc, an event operation company in Osaka, organizes cosplaying events that take place over a total of 100 days every year and draw about 200,000 people.

There’s an increasing number of activities by young people to support their “fave” layer. There are also many people who don’t cosplay themselves, but come to the events to meet the layers, said a Hacosta employee in charge of cosplaying events.

Turning point

In Japan, there is a long tradition of ordinary people masquerading when taking part in local festivals. Toward the end of the Edo period (1603-1867), there was a popular movement called “Eejanaika” (It’s OK, isn’t it), which was about young people dancing and marching together, many dressed up in strange-looking clothes.

It represented the desire for an escape from the framework of everydayness, sociologist Munesuke Mita wrote about “Eejanaika” in one of his books.

One theory claims that the spread of cosplaying in Japan was triggered by the Comic Market, a sales event for fanzines that started in the 1970s.

For a long time, however, it was seen as nothing but a pastime by some fans because many “adults” raised an eyebrow at young people dressed up in outrageous costumes, given the persistent peer pressure of Japanese society.

Things changed with the arrival of Instagram, X (then Twitter) and other social media platforms, which began spreading in and after the 2010s.

The idea of “looking good” on social media started to be taken seriously by young people, and it became normal to publish edited photos. Maybe they started to feel less uncomfortable about showing various aspects of themselves, said Prof. Takeshi Okamoto of Kindai University, who is well-versed in pop culture.

Custom order costumes

New kinds of businesses related to cosplaying have developed along with the hobby’s growing fan base. One example is Narikiri, a made-to-order costume service exclusively for cosplayers.

It used to be normal for cosplayers to sew their own costumes or buy ready-made costumes before taking part in cosplaying events. But the quality of handmade costumes varies depending on the skill of the person making them, and the ready-made costumes sold in stores are mostly of popular characters.

A man (left) takes selfie pictures with cosplay fans outside the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya on Aug. 3, 2024. (AFP/Philip Fong)

Narikiri is an online matching service for layers in need of costumes and props and creators with the skills to make them.

An average order costs about 60,000-70,000 yen, with some even reaching around 1 million yen (US$6,360).

The cosplaying craze is booming overseas as well, so we can expect to see demand there, said Shigenobu Chaki, president of Otacrowd Co. in Osaka, which operates the service.

Japan’s pop culture, such as anime, manga and video games, has soft power with its worldwide following. Soon, cosplaying will likely become one of its central pillars.

Copyright warnings

Consumption of cosplay-related merchandise can be seen as a promising area for growth. One research institute predicts that the cosplaying market will surpass the 1 trillion yen mark in 2030.

However, some cosplaying activities potentially involve such legal issues as copyright violations.

It cannot be denied that there are [legal] gray areas. What’s happening right now is that [cosplayers] are given silent approvals by the companies that hold the copyrights, said an employee of a company engaged in cosplaying businesses.

Similar problems have long been pointed out regarding fanfiction in fanzines. Those engaged in such activities should follow the company’s rules and be very careful about expressions that go too far or are too explicit.