While most Japanese may be oblivious to the effect their pop culture is having on the youth of the world, there are a number of Net-based communities of Japanophiles, and hundreds of thousands of people flock to major Japan-related events around the world, such as the Salon del Manga in Barcelona and the Otakon Anime Convention in Baltimore.

One such group has formed around lolita fashion, a style that in its current incarnation began in Japan.

Some of the world's lolita fashion communities are surprisingly large. I am in touch with a South Korean group that claims 1,800 members, and a Brazilian group that has 2,000 members. I have met women that organized similar groups in Moscow, Paris and Barcelona.

Contemporary lolita fashion traces its beginnings to Japanese designers yearning to recreate the rococo styles of 18th century France.

Women adopting this particular style also can be seen on TV and in anime and film. Among them are the Sansho sisters, characters in the TBS show Majisuka Gakuen. Though lolita fashion takes its name from Vladimir Nabokov's novel of the same name, it has nothing to do with the subject. In fact, in France, the style is considered Japanese.

I once visited a Marseille restaurant with a well-known Japanese lolita designer. We were taken by surprise: when we entered the eatery, she was treated as if she was a big Hollywood star.

It is safe to say that around the world, people associate lolita and school uniform fashions with Japan.

One activity lolita afficionados love is the tea party. Dressed in their favorite outfits, the women get together to talk over tea and cake, recreating a scene one may have seen back in the day at Versailles Palace. It is this very tea party that may be behind of the spread of this uniquely Japanese fashion.

Sakurai is a content producer using events and seminars to engage in "pop culture diplomacy." This column, Looking East, consists of selected stories translated from his weekly column in The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Follow Takamasa Sakurai at twitter.com/sakuraitakamasa

(Sep. 3, 2010)