Low pressure selling

This week I have an entry I have wanted to add for some time.

karisuma tenin (charisma clerk) カリスマ店員

However it took years for a print source to describe the phenomenon. I tend to be pretty strict when it comes to relying on web sources. Finally when the book Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential by Brian Ashcraft and Ueda Shoko came out I had my source.

Charisma clerks are a highly interseting subject that just escaped the attention of the English language media.

In fact before the book came out the only reliable source I found was the "Petit Celebrities" tutorial on the MEKAS website. If you are interested in Japanese fashion in any way check out MEKAS, The site is no longer active (since March 2009) due to the economy but it is still up and has some of the best information you will find on Japanese fashion in English.

Fashion scholar W. David Marx handled much of the work on the site and the quality is top notch. He continues to write for several periodicals and maintains a blog, Néojaponisme, that has truly interesting stuff you probably won't find anywhere else. He also occasionally writes for CNNGo.