Idio(syncra)tic Japan: Minister in Charge of "Cool Japan" in Gothic-Lolita "Alice in Wonderland" Cosplay

I've been accused by readers of this blog for being "too cynical" about Japan. Well do I have a choice?

54-year-old Tomomi Inada is the Minister in charge of "Cool Japan" strategy. And it was her idea of this strategy to dress up as, as she said, "Alice in Wonderland" in what she called "Gothic and Lolita" fashion, to promote Japanese fashion at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) on May 31, 2013 in Yokohama City.

Photos from Asahi Shinbun (6/1/2013) looks more like middle-aged Disney "Snow White".

Ms. Inada is from Fukui Prefecture, (in)famous for numerous nuclear power plants that dot the rugged coastline and also famous for textile and weaving. Her dress, she says in the Asahi article, cost 170,000 yen (US$1,700, at least the conversion got so much easier thanks to Mr. Kuroda's bungling the JGB market).

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