Home to some 50,000 people born in Japan, London has been well served for some time with aspects of culture and lifestyle from the Land of the Rising Sun.
But during a visit to last month's Canon Fashion Week -- formerly known as London Fashion Week -- those links seemed to have mushroomed: Ramen chain Wagamama continues to get ever more high profile, and already has 43 outlets nationwide; double-decker buses were emblazoned with ads for Uniqlo; posters of a mural at Gloucester Road Station in Kensington by artist Chiho Aoshima were plastered all over the Tube system; dozens of young Japanese designers were being feted at London Design Week; and an exhibition of photographs by Magnum agency veteran Hiroji Kubota was on display outside the futuristic new City Hall building near Tower Bridge.
But ironically, while Japan's emblematic Canon corporation has acquired the naming rights for the British capital's big fab fash bash, Japanese names have disappeared from the Fashion Week schedule. Half-Japanese duo Blaak may have left for Paris a year ago, but up until last season there were no fewer than four design duos featuring a Japanese person active in the city -- not to mention Michiko Koshino, the youngest of the three fashion-designer Koshino sisters, who has been based in Britain since 1975.