In February of this year, I returned to Tokyo for two days after a shoot in Dubai, and then headed to Okinawa for a "Men's Non-no G" photoshoot. We primarily shot in Yomitan Village on Okinawa Island, and this photo was taken on the rooftop of an old motel. I was drawn to the contrast between the faded "ASIA" lettering on the wall and the gray sky.

I have a tendency to immediately associate the post-war era with the unique mood found in places like Okinawa, with its US military bases, or Yokosuka. I felt the same way when I visited the area near the Yokosuka base. Images of heavily made-up Japanese women mingling with drunken American soldiers come to mind. I wonder why. Even though I didn't live through that era, memories from various movies, TV dramas, novels, and photo collections resurface as if I had experienced them myself.

During that time, how did Japanese men feel watching those scenes? Well, I believe it's a fact that Japanese women, both then and now, are clearly more resilient and shrewd than Japanese men, and are overwhelmingly more popular with foreigners. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that the men who saw these Japanese women with foreigners must have felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness and an unresolvable regret.

Perhaps the miraculous post-war recovery of Japan was partly driven by such feelings acting as a catalyst.



Now, for this day's look, the stadium jacket is from Bedwin. I've known Masashi Watanabe, the designer of Bedwin, for about 17 years, ever since he participated as a reader model in "POPEYE." He later studied abroad in London.

I ordered this stadium jacket at the exhibition. I like the quilted sleeves and the attention to detail. The slightly cropped length, for instance—it's a stadium jacket, yet the silhouette has a certain mode-like quality that I appreciate.

The chino pants are from CICATA. The sneakers are LANVIN. I wore this particular bottom pattern a lot during that period. The blue-gray cashmere scarf was purchased at Maria Luisa in Paris. The sunglasses are either Bottega Veneta or Marc Jacobs, but I can't quite recall which. Looking at them now, they seem quite large.

"Men's Non-no G" is published twice a year, and I participate in creating various pages each time. In fact, when it first launched, I styled the entire issue. The title logo and the naming of 'G' were also my ideas, so it holds a special significance for me. So, what does 'G' stand for? That's a long story, perhaps for another time.