CanCam April 2012

Sexy elegance for young women – mote-kei

The name “CanCam” derives from “I Can Campus”. The idea is that CanCam’s readers will become “campus leaders”. However, these days, the average reader’s age is about 23, with half of CanCam readers employed.

The past few years CanCam has dominated the women’s fashion world. Partly by tending to mote-kei. Mote-kei is a very popular style in Japan. It is the pinnacle of femininity without showing off with sexual appeal or individuality. The idea is to attract the widest possible interest from men, mote meaning ‘being popular with the other sex’. The poster girl for mote-kei is CanCam model Yuri Ebihara.

Another reason is CanCam’s aggressive use of senzoku models, models who appear exclusively in a single publication, especially Yu Yamada, Yuri Ebihara and Moe Oshikiri. It is like going to MacDonald’s, you know exactly what you get. No surprises. And if you are a fan of a certain model, you are hooked on the magazine.

Like most Japanese fashion magazines, CanCam offers catalog style advice (photos with brands and prices on the side) and detailed articles on mixing and matching popular fashion items. Usually inexpensive clothes matched with expensive luxury brand bags and jewelry.

CanCam has a circulation of 500,000 and is published by Shogakukan