Japan's "Princess Girls" - Oh Grow Up Already!

As reported in the Wall Street Journal

From the country that made Hello Kitty a cultural icon
we know have the Princess Girl.

Ms. Yamamoto is a hime gyaru, or princess girl, a growing
new tribe of Japanese women who aim to look like sugarcoated, 21st-century
versions of old-style European royalty. They idolize Marie Antoinette and Paris
Hilton, (!!!!) for her baby-doll looks and princess lifestyle. They speak in soft,
chirpy voices and flock to specialized boutiques with names like Jesus Diamante,
which looks like a bedroom in a European chateau. There, some hime girls spend
more than $1,000 for an outfit including a satin dress, parasol and
rhinestone-studded handbag.

36 year old Myumi Yamamoto spends $3,000 per month on little girl dressing

24 year old Keiko Mizoe sells $95,000 per month in hime fashions

Japan has been famous for its extreme
fashion fads, mostly among teenagers. These have ranged from the Lolita look, in
which women dress up in baby-doll dresses and bonnets

But the princess boom is seen as a more
polished and sophisticated look that's popular among working women in their 20s
and 30s, perhaps as a bit of escapism from workaday stress and economic
uncertainty.
"There's a longing for a happy-ending fairy tale," says Asuka
Watanabe, a sociology professor at Kyoritsu Women's Junior College, who
specializes in street fashion.

Can I ask why the Japanese have a fetish for infantalizing women?

Are Japanese men secretly pedophiles?

Admittedly, most little girls want to be a princess at sometime in their lives....but it usually goes away by the time they reach 2nd grade.