Manami Okazaki & Geoffrey Johnson Kicks Japan

The Japanese tend to takes things to extremes and become aficionados. Given that many of the world’s top sneaker designers reside in Japan, a country with a thriving, at times absurd, consumer culture, it should come as no surprise that Japanese sneaker culture goes to a whole new level, especially in Tokyo. All over the world, Japanese sneakers are renowned for design and craftsmanship, generating a culture of sneaker obsession. Kicks Japan celebrates this obsession.

This fashionable, sexy book features fantastic photography of Tokyo sneaker-related scenes, interviews with famous international artists that have collaborated with Japanese sneaker labels, local graffiti and tattoo artists, designers and skateboarders. Original photographs from sneaker and skate parties demonstrate just how rabid this subculture in in Japan. There are also amazing examples of interiors of Japanese sneaker shops, which have to be seen to be believed: sneakers on sushi conveyor belts, swimming pools filled with bananas, art made of sneakers. Put all together, these images and interviews provide a comprehensive look at sneaker culture in Japan in all of its colorful and sexy glory.

176 pages