So Many Men, So Many Fechi! 10 Japanese Irresistible “Fechi” (Fetish) Cultures You Have No Choice but Agree to!

| Features | Posted by Ayaya on Mar.12.2016

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What image do you have for the word “fetish” in English? Most of you must imagine it’s some serious mental disorder, having sexual focus on a non-living object or non-genital body part. Or more casually, fetish fashion, bondage, dominance/submission, and/or sadism and masochism could be imagined.

However, in Japan, the word “fetish” is very casually used and having much much lighter meaning. The word is even used among young people, to be shorten as “fechi（フェチ）”. Talking about their own fechi at classroom is not something embarrassing nor to be blamed at all. Thus “fechi” in Japanese only means, light sexual preference . It seems the meaning of “fechi” has been getting closer to “moe（萌え）”, which usually defined as “feelings of strong affection towards anime characters or people”.

As “Moe” are categorized in various patterns, so “fechi” does. The most often heard fechi words are like these:
-Megane-fechi : fechi towards people who wearing eyeglasses
-Sakotsu-fechi : fechi towards people who have beautiful clavicular
-Te-fechi : fechi towards people who have beautiful hands (the most important part is FINGERS!)
-Waki-fechi : fechi towards people who have beautiful armpit
-Oshiri-fechi : fechi towards beautiful hip (in most cases, it’s boys to girls)

Sakotsu fechi

These listed fechi are only a few of “fechi” samples, and actually anything could be “fechi” if you say you like it. There are very minor fechi such as “pores in the skin fechi”, “eyeballs fechi”, or “tailbone fechi”. So many men, so many fechi.

According to Urepia Souken, the media researching trends in lifestyle, fashion, and culture in Japan, “2015 was the year of “fechi” culture made a big hit”. Tokyo Girls’ Update also has been chasing the trends from since 2014 to now, and we want to show you the wrap-up of “fechi” series article for your deeper understanding.

1. Knee-high socks

http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/knee-high-socks-pedia-20150957916.html

As one of the standards items of Japanese “moe” culture and common knowledge for all Japanese subculture geeks worldwide, “knee-high socks” have the never-ending possibility to attract many different people nowadays. From fashion, to subculture, and even to fetish art, knee-high socks have come to be loved by males and females now.In this article, we researches the reasons why have “knee-high socks” been so popular for so many years now, and why are they so attractive to both genders!

2. Suichu-Niso (Underwater Knee-High Girls)

suichu-niso-cube-04
Suichi-Niso plus Exhibition report : http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/guide/underwater-knee-high-girls-plus-exhibition

The 3rd “Underwater Knee-High Girls” to Be Published as “Suichu Niso Cube” Showing Girls’ Relationships : http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/suichu-niso-cube-20150751728.html

This “Suichu-Niso” series photographer are by visual artist, designer, and video creator Manabu Koga. He has worked on the underwater shooting for Helter Skelter, and Sayonara Ponytail’s “Hey!! Nyan♡” music video. He originally began his underwater girls project as a hobby, but claims that it inspired him more than his projects at work. The popularity has been rising day by day and “Suichu-Niso” photos went overseas and were exhibited in Taiwan in 2015. In Japanese pop culture, eroticism and fashion are not deliberately separated and mixed up. So you can receive it as fashion, fechi, art…whatever you feel!

3. Seifuku (School Uniforms)

http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/japanese-school-uniform-20150856907.html

School uniforms bring back memories of our young sweet and bitter memories. They aren’t just clothes, but symbols of Japanese school girls and give you some taste of fechi! Any girl would look 10 times cuter in a school uniform. Here is all you need to know to be an expert on Japanese school uniforms!

4. Twin Tails

http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/japanese-kawaii-twin-tails-20140826280.html

Twin tails is the most represented hairstyle for Japan’s kawaii. The hairstyle is seen on characters like Sailor Moon and Hatsune Miku, in pretty girl animes (bishoujo anime) and idols. Originally twin tails had childish image but not it’s changing more like one of the fashion style for teenage girls. It might be embarrassing to style it that way, but when you look at it another way, it’s has a “pure kind of cuteness that adults don’t have” appeal that no other hairstyle has!

5. Yuri

http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/yuri-otaku-anaylysis-20160176277.html

“Yuri” is a term referring to female-female relationships, also known as “GL (girls love)”. In Japan, yuri has become a widely known genre mainly popular with the younger generation. It is also developed as a type of category in various media, like anime, movie and more. Yet might seem like a culture from yesterday, the term was coined in the 1970s. We dig into the history of the yuri and introduce the media and the factors behind its appeal in this article.

We also have visited “Yuri Exhibition” a month ago, where you can enjoy Yuri manga and photographies. Yuri is not just appealing to girls who like girls, but also girls who like boys and boys who like girls or boys…I mean, anyone! Loving “Yuri” doesn’t related with your sexual preferences ; most of the people the beauty of the relationships.

6. Thighs (Futomomo)
http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/ambiguous-thighs-photo-studio-20150752492.html

Yuria, a photographer who has spent the past 5 years recording and curating images of women’s thighs as part of the movement to show the artistic side of fetishism. He had a solo photo exhibition, and here is the report article of it. While the image of women’s thighs is the unifying theme for all of the works that were on display, it would be premature to dismiss it as a simple assemblage of fetish photographs. Is the attention and care that Yuria took in capturing and selecting the images shown above completely different to what a portrait or landscape photographer would do?

7. Kare-sen (Hot old guy)
kare-sen-analysis2
http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/kare-sen-girls-20160280784.html

Many Japanese women find themselves in a situation of loving handsome young guys, but old quiet and simple men are quite charming for them too. This article will dig into the attractiveness of older guys that “kare-sen” girls, who love elder or even senior men. The author analyzes that the main factor of hot old guys are below.

・Composing calmness that comes from the grown-up mind
・Understanding the way to treat women
・Smartly sexy in attitude and manners
・Cuteness in understanding one’s self as being old

Do you agree with them? If so, you might be Kare-sen! Only hot old guys please!

8. Hanare-me (Wide set eyes)

http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/wideset-eyes-makeup-20150960196.html

It used to be eyes that look close together were one of the factors of beautiful face in Japan. However, having a face with wide-set eyes(Hanare-me) is said to be the newest kawaii face and some people feel fechi for Hanare-me! They give you cuter impression (like many cute animals have wide set eyes). In the article we shows the tutorial for creating Hanare-me make-up!

9. Sanpaku Eyes

http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/sanpakugan-girls-cute-20151061207.html

Sanpaku eyes means that the iris of the eyes don’t touch the bottem of their eyes. People who have Sanpaku eyes leave a very strong impression that they have powerful eyes. Some people have thought these eyes make them a bit scary especially since people who have big iris were thought to be cute. Since Sanpaku eyes were not a major genre, not many people payed attention to it, but many of the girls we think cute had Sanpaku eyes actually! Maybe you’ve been experiencing the same thing…?

10. Yaeba (snaggleteeth)

yaeba-girl-thumnail http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/snaggletooth-girls-fashion-20150441320.html

“Yaeba”, or “snaggleteeth”, conjures up positive and cute images like “it’s adorable and puppy-like” or “it makes her smile give off a twinge of sweetness”, not like people oversea think snaggleteeth = vampire and carries an evil-like image! We suppose that it is because the tendency for Japanese to find beauty in unevenness or imperfection, and snaggleteeth playing into a part of that.

We have shown 10 fechi articles wrote so far. However, we have more! As I mentioned in the beginning, anything could be fechi, “So many men, so many fechi”. Did you find your favorite from the 10 above? Or you realized your original fechi while reading? If so, please tell us, we will sure to examine it!

Author

Ayaya

Been working in girls’ fashion magazines for a long time and am now the chief editor of Tokyo Girls’ Update. I have more expertise in Japanese teen fashion than anyone else (probably)! I’m a huge fan of the Revolutionary Girl Utena and Bakemonogatari animes.