It's party time in Tokyo -- again. You know, that twice yearly event when the capital's trendy restaurants and coffee shops seem to be overflowing with leggy, blonde models from overseas. They're here to make a few bucks, have a few parties -- and also have a stab at furthering their careers.

But behind the mascara and blush, the frisson-fueling see-through tops and seriously abbreviated shorts, there's business to be done.

And what a business it is.

New boutiques seem to be sprouting out of the concrete with each passing day; of note are the grandiose multimillion-dollar edifices that Prada and Louis Vuitton have fused and welded together in Japan's epicenter of fashion, Aoyama, and the Maison Hermes boutique in Ginza -- just a few of the more recent additions to the exploding Tokyo skyline.

If further proof is needed, go watch the crowds of youngsters in Tokyo's Shibuya or Harajuku areas, or Osaka's Shinsaibashi, digging deep into apparently bottomless wallets.

Or just stand in a convenience store and thumb through the multitude of publications that hype every detail of fashion -- from makeup to couture, from fake tans to recycled clothes -- for the benefit of this country's army of seemingly tireless fashion victims.

It's interesting, when taking a look at Japan's fashion industry in 2003, to consider the hard work by a few very creative people that has gone into making Tokyo one of the five fashion "capitals" of the world. Today's young designers are reaping the fruits of the hard work set in motion three decades or more ago by Japan's now world-famous designers.

True, Japanese fashion is weaker now than it was 20 years ago, the time when Tokyo's now A-list designers -- Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Hanae Mori -- were at their peak and their names and creations were esteemed by the industry's movers and shakers in Paris and the other fashion capitals of Milan, London and New York.

Times -- and economies -- have changed, but Japanese designers still command respect across the whole spectrum of the rag trade. One reason for this is the Japanese ability to be able to take something created by someone else, then refine it and -- no pun intended -- tailor it for the Japanese consumer. Or, in the case of fashion, for clients around the world.

Two prime examples are Issey Miyake and Hanae Mori.

Early Miyake pieces were inspired by French designer Madeleine Vionnet, widely regarded as the inventor of the bias cut. This means that the fabric, which is cut diagonally across the threads, naturally follows the body's contours instead of hanging limp. That, in turn gives the piece movement and life -- qualities central to Miyake's philosophy, in which he set out to push fashion to the very edge, where a garment becomes an extension of the wearer.

Now, more than 30 years after Miyake established Miyake Design Studio, he has handed over designing for his eponymous label to Naoki Takizawa in order to concentrate on his "baby," the high-tech Pleats Please label that wowed the public when it debuted a decade or more ago.

The other example of Japanese refining and customizing par excellence is the country's queen of high fashion, Hanae Mori, whose trademark butterfly creations are as well known as her startlingly beautiful haute couture pieces worn by the world's rich and famous.

Mori, who began her career back in the 1960s as a costume designer, has the distinction of being the first Asian designer named to the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.

Before that luminary quartet of Mori, Miyake, Yamamoto and Kawakubo burst onto the scene, haute couture -- since it was created by the Englishman Charles Frederick Worth when he was working in Paris in the mid-19th century -- had little or no place in Japanese fashion.

But Mori, with her keen eye and creative flair, has given the world a style of haute couture all her own. In virtually every collection she has presented in Paris over the years, she hasn't neglected to incorporate some aspect of Japan -- whether in the form of Hokusai-inspired prints, obi belts, or even butterflies recalled from her childhood in Shimane Prefecture.

Meanwhile, the advent of modern Japanese fashion has its roots in the 1960s and '70s, when there was a grouping in Tokyo known as TD-6 (Tokyo designers 6) representing the capital's "names" at that time -- Junko Koshino, Mitsuhiro Matsuda, Isao Kaneko, Yukiko Hanai, Kansai Yamamoto and Takeo Kikuchi.

A decade or so later, in 1985, 32 designers got together and formed the CFD (Council of Fashion Designers, Tokyo), a body which to this day coordinates and promotes this country's many fashion designers, and also seeks to support up-and-coming talent.

Shoko Hisada, chairperson of the CFD, said that the organization "gives advice to designers who have five or seven years' experience, and who want to show their designs in the collections."

The CFD also serves as a go-between, introducing promising designers to areas or regions across Japan which are renowned for producing excellent textiles -- such as in Nagano or in Kyushu where factories produce traditional Japanese fabrics.

"The CFD is targeting the creativity of designers," explains Hisada. "We are not deeply involved in the business side of things."

With all the fanfare and a million glossy mags pushing ready-to-wear brands, one traditional, oh-so-elegant item of Japanese dress that appears to be getting rarer with each passing year is the kimono.

True, you do see young women wearing yukata for summer festivals, and if you head down Kyoto way or stroll though Ginza in the early morning hours when the "snack bar" mama-sans are heading home, you'd think Japanese wear kimomo all day, every day. But most teenagers and twentysomethings, raised on a diet of unadulterated "Western" fashion, would be hard-pressed to know how to put on or wear a kimono in the correct way.

However, veteran Tokyo designer Yuki Torii says that the kimono is, in fact, enjoying some kind of renaissance.

"I think people are wearing kimono in an increasing number of situations. They enjoying wearing them at fireworks events during the summer and at other festivals.

"I sense this trend because our company is designing kimono and yukata. Recently there has also been a boom in antique kimono. I noticed this past summer that a lot of people were wearing kimono made from the meisen fabric of the Taisho Period. It's fun to check out antique shops, to see what old kimono are there."

Despite this, the vast majority of young Japanese designers, with their exposure to Western ideas and Western fashion, have a kind of tunnel vision which precludes anything that hints even slightly at the japonesque.

Another unique aspect of Japanese fashion is the fact that, over several centuries, specialized methods have evolved in the manufacturing process of fabrics, often in specific regions of the country.

In the southwest islands, banana leaf fibers are woven into cloth, and bamboo is used in some areas. Meanwhile, Nagano Prefecture is well known for its artisans who carry on age-old specialized dyeing techniques.

Even if the number of successful designers -- for example, those showing in Paris or Tokyo or those who have stayed in business for five years or more -- amounts to just a few dozen, each spring there is a seemingly infinite supply of young graduates seeking to enter the workforce in some way or another, be it through studying such courses as fashion business, fashion production and marketing, textile science, jewelry or interior design.

From the largest fashion college in Japan -- Bunka Fukuso Gakuin near Shinjuku in Tokyo -- somewhere in the region of 2,000 fashion students, trained in all aspects of the trade, graduate each year.

Paris-based Esmod design college, which has schools in both Tokyo and Osaka, as well as in Seoul and Jakarta, sees approximately 400 students graduate each spring, Other Tokyo-based institutes, such as Vantan, Sugino and Tokyo Fashion College, as well as specialist schools for jewelry or accessories, graduate hundreds, if not thousands, a year between them.

Some of these young aspirants may find the path to future success lies via a period of time spent abroad. Paris has always acted as a magnet for aspiring fashion designers from every corner of the globe; Hanae Mori and Issey Miyake first won international exposure in New York; and Kansai Yamamoto presented his first show in London.

Since then, all three have returned to this country, established as top-ranking designers while remaining, first and foremost, Japanese with an international presence.

Other Japanese fashion notables, though, have developed their careers abroad. Some were apprentices with Europe's or America's biggest names, while others rose through the ranks and became stars in their adopted countries. Among these, the standouts are Junko Shimada, Kenzo Takada, the late Tokio Kumagai and Michiko Koshino -- kid sister of Tokyo's Hiroko and Junko -- who has been a fixture on the London fashion scene for many years.

So who will follow in the footsteps of these design luminaries? Successors -- and daughters -- have been groomed for takeover: Takizawa at Miyake, Junya Watanabe at Comme des Garcons, Tae Ashida at Jun Ashida, Limi Yamamoto at Yohji Yamamoto. These might be anointed heirs but, with the exception of Takizawa, all have been designing their own lines for several years.

While they might be expected to carry the visions of their mentors into the future, they will also certainly have their own ambitions.

But who's to say that Tokyo will be the place to do that? While the city is currently the undisputed "Paris of the East," competition is emerging from designers in Seoul -- who some years ago established a foothold in Paris fashion week -- and Shanghai, which already has its own fashion week.

Looking at the whole picture, it is hard to say what Asian -- or Japanese -- fashion will be like five, 10 or 50 years down the road. Known for its fickleness and abrupt mood swings, one thing is certain: Tokyo and its designers will be credited with putting Asia on the world fashion map.