The Revival of Y2K

A celebration of 2000s life and 2,000 subscribers!

I’m picturing myself up on stage as the Oscar music tries to play me off. A very special thank you to all my subscribers and followers- this feels entirely unreal. The impetus for this post is that Hidden Japan somehow has reached the milestone of 2,000 subscribers! To celebrate, I really wanted to look at the intersection of the Venn Diagram between 2000 and Japan. And hopefully the various insights I can provide along the way.

Bearing all this in mind, I wanted to be overly cute and do maybe the most 2000’s thing possible, which is tie-ins. I want to pair this unbelievable milestone of 2,000 Substack subscribers with a topic that is at least tangentially relevant, Y2K.

As a sincere thank you and to celebrate all of you, I have just set up a one-time only subscription model for anyone who would like to be more immersed in the Hidden Japan family, and also likes special discounts. If you want to continue as a free subscriber, that’s also great and thank you for your support!

See below for the Y2K themed offer!

Wot iz Y2K?

Apologies for that title. The rest of this article will contain much less of these styled sentences. To me, that linguistic style and general energy is the essence of Y2K.

Y2k, for those lucky enough to be too young to now live through it, and anyone who had their minds wiped during the changeover, is the turn of the millennium. Second millennium to be precise. Being slightly less precise would be describing the general sentiment, fashion, and vibe of the time-period between 1998-2003. This was a worldwide phenomenon, as time does apply across countries.

However, as this newsletter tends to do, I will focus more on Japan.

To set the context, the so-called SMS slang of the title and time period was everywhere. This can be seen as a snapshot of the era as a whole, a time of major technological upheaval and change. Sure, most eras can be categorised as that, but what made the Y2K period especially vulnerable was the clear flattening of the world as a whole. From 3D to 2D, from local to global. The big topic to blame/celebrate for this change was technology. The mass adoption of the internet and mobile phone services meant great connection to everyone, yet maybe a lesser connection to certain someones.

Now, 25 words or less on the actual Y2K. A worldwide panic about the digital and physical landscape thanks to twentieth century programming choices!

This fear was reflected in the fashion, pop culture, and even language. Despite widespread and imminent technological changes being a total object of the past with zero modern day equivalences, I think observing this history can share some insights.

Japan during 2000

It is a fun exercise to imagine life about a quarter century ago. Things were simpler, with the possibility of a new text based slang that threatened to take over. While it is easy to think this was a purely English phenomenon, it was not just those countries who were swapping “to” with 2, telling people to NVM, and just LMAOing everywhere.

Japan had their own set of text communications that had initially seemed unintelligible to the older generations. Perhaps the most famous and still active is the “w” or 笑. Similar in tone to the highly emotive “LOL” of the West, “w” or 笑 stands as the “haha” response. Explanations for “w” and 笑 becoming the national stand-in for this sound vary, from people claiming the symbol looks like a shrunken anime face laughing, to 笑うdirectly translating to warau or laugh. Novel in 2000, the w epidemic has spread everywhere, with variants on something being very funny with many w’s (wwwwwww), which has led to the phrase, 草生えた ("grew grass"). Since a long line of w’s look like little blades of grass, the terminology "to grow grass” is to be very funny.

Such newfangled text speak has only grown in popularity over the 2000s in Japan. Just like the every growing lists of acronyms, Japanese slang is not merely relegated to the first text messages. Ever more localised languages occur in Japanese forums across the internet. Much like in the West, the mainstream culture lags this wave of strange ways to quickly communicate longstanding emotions, yet eventually the new language seeps into national discourse.

Style time

While modern day Japanese language is distinctly moulded by the advent of the Y2K style of speaking, there are many aspects of Japanese life that have left the 2000s behind. For the longest time, it seemed that fashion was amongst those which happily never looked back at the 2000s aesthetic.

To describe this aesthetic in a word, excess. Garish colours, bleach tips, and baggy fitting clothing were all in. At least that’s what the cool ones wore; naturally the regular folk working their 9-5 were less involved in this over-the-top style.

Yet if you pay closer attention to the newest styling choices of the bright young stars of the mid-2020’s, garish colours, bleach tips, and baggy fitting clothing fits the bill. You may already be thinking that a singular band is responsible for all this. Yes it's the iconic girl group from… Korea: NEWJEANS!

The Newjean team

Despite their foreign origins, Newjeans are arguably the biggest band in Japan these days (at least based on chart success). They have ushered in a new period of the baggy, brightly-coloured style that was snapped shut by the hipster minimalist look in the latter end of the decade. To me, this trend is eclipsed by the greatest collaboration between the J-Pop and K-Pop universes.

I speak of course about Y2K, the band.

If you have somehow missed this, Y2K was a supergroup formed in 1999. Consisting of 2 Japanese superstars, Matsuo Yuichi, and Matsuo Koji, as well as Ko Jae-geun, this was the very first idol collaboration between the two rival countries.

This rivalry is no joke; until 1998, any Japanese media was illegal to be aired in South Korea (to say nothing of the North). In fact, even today in 2024, it is still illegal to broadcast Japanese music and television dramas over terrestrial signals in South Korea. While this article isn’t about Japanese-Korean relations, it is safe to say that there is still work to be done on it.

Ko Jae-geun, Matsuo Yuichi, and Matsuo Koji better known as Y2K

Y2K marked the thawing of a very frosty relationship between the two countries as they prepared for a new millennium. The band name naturally derived from the time period, but also from the bandmember’s first names like a proto chemical formula (there are 2 K’s and 1 Y… Y2K). Given the banned language status of the band, the songs had to be in Korean. As two thirds of the band were Korean-illiterate, every lyric was rewritten in katakana so that the songs could be performed.

These guys were highly successful, being chart toppers in Korea and well-acknowledged in Japan, and can conceivably be an exhibit unto themselves in the future Korean-Japanese Friendship museum (to be constructed). Beyond being the first Japanese musicians to crossover across to the peninsula, Matsuo Koji was the very first Japanese person ever in a Korean commercial, as below!

However, like many massive attractions during the early 2000s, their star power faded. 2001 was the last time the band performed any new hits, and just like that, the Friendship Museum which looked so promising no longer seemed plausible.

Everybody… Y2K’s Back, Alright!

With 20 plus years past this heady optimism that the late 1990’s brought, it is little wonder that the decades following reverted to a monochrome, minimalist style. However, as this article’s title alludes to, the Y2K aesthetic and ideals has roared back.

Tokyo and Osaka is abuzz with aesthetically 2000s core outfits, casting aside the grayscale millennial look entirely. Perhaps it stems from the easy nostalgia of a time seemingly more simple and of living memory. After all, the 90s and 80s were obsessed with the 1950s and 1960s with movies like Back to the Future and Forrest Gump painting that picture of an idyllic epoch.

Maybe it is the fact that another digital/industrial tsunami is upon us with the advent of AI and their many related friends, and turning to a time where we solved that conundrum is comforting. Facing a potential apocalypse is a lot more fun when you are dressed up like a sk8er with shiny sequins.

It might also simply be the case that highly visible fashion forward people congregate in the same areas. It shouldn’t be all too surprising that these styles are coming back in droves for the young with disposable income and time in Harajuku and Amerika-mura. These are literally suburbs who have defined themselves by images of an idealised West (hence Amerika-mura).

So let us join the ones who celebrate the 2000s with all their double denim and platform shoes. We can take a cue from Bandai’s most unexpected enduring hit, the Tamagotchi. This portmanteau of the Japanese words Tamago for egg, and uotchi/ watch (and the similar-sounding tomodachi meaning friend), ruled the playgrounds of the late 1990s. The 2010s were not kind though, to the over 91 million virtual pets. These 8 bit pets which demanded love, care and affection were lost in their millions as their millennial parents left them behind.

The inevitable march of digital progress meant that these literally attached at the hip (via the classic 2000s low rise belt loop) pets were consigned to the dustbin of aughts’ history. However, we are discussing a revival.

Bandai having run through their inventory, re-introduced the toy in 2019. This was originally designed to capture the nostalgic kick of newly cashed-up millennials. These new Tamagotchis looked nearly identical, still with 3 simple buttons to control everything needed. Bandai searched far and wide to find partners on this new revival, settling with their Japanese compatriots Sanrio of Hello Kitty fame. While nostalgia may have started the revival of the toy, it was a younger generation who continued the love.

Generation Z has embraced the Tamagotchi in an entirely unexpected way. The relaunch in 2019 became a TikTok sensation, with influencers leading the drive to more pocket pets. The customer base shifted to those not even born during the first phase of Tamagotchi, with Bandai suddenly struggling to keep up with demand- even opening a new Tamagotchi store in London in 2023.

The return of the Tamagotchi may be indicative of how we should act with the 2000s aesthetic revival as a whole. By updating and retaining the core elements of yourself from 20 + years ago, the world might be ready to fawn all over once again. Maybe nostalgic items can hold new life for those who never experienced it. In the case of Tamagotchi, the idea of nurturing a needy being using only 3 buttons is somehow seen as respite.

The world still remains complex and unsolvable even after 2000. However the revival in Y2K aesthetic is a case of mentally travelling back in time where century old global disputes seemed fixable through the power of pop music, fashion was brighter, and you could educate an entire generation with 3 simple buttons.

Who wouldn’t want to live in such a Y2K world?