Juliana's, also known as Juliana's Tokyo (ジュリアナ東京), was a Japanese

discothèque A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

that operated in

Shibaura is a district of Minato ward located in Tokyo, Japan. The district is located between the eastern side of the Yamanote Line train and Tokyo Bay. Shibaura consists mostly of artificial islands created by the excavation of industrial canals in t ...

, Minato,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

from May 15, 1991 till August 31, 1994. It was famous for its dance platforms, on which office ladies dressed in " bodycon" ()

clubwear A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

would congregate, as amateur

go-go dancers Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken ...

(professionals were also employed). The club was produced by Masahiro Origuchi for the British leisure services group Wembley PLC, and Nissho Iwai Corporation, the Japanese general trading company (now part of

Sojitz is a ''sogo shosha'' (general trading company) based in Tokyo, Japan. It is engaged in a wide range of businesses globally, including buying, selling, importing, and exporting goods, manufacturing and selling products, providing services, and pl ...

Musical style and legacy

Juliana's started out playing

Italo house Italo house (often simply referred to as "Italian" or "Italian house" in the UK) is a form of house music originating in Italy. Typically popular in Italy, Britain, and United States since the late 1980s, it fuses house music and Italo disco. Th ...

then quickly following popular trends to

Hardcore techno Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno or hardcore house) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorte ...

. The Juliana's producers published a series of compilation CDs which were popularizing techno in Japan. The album sales were an essential part of the business concept as the club was never very profitable on its own.

Cultural impact

The Juliana culture represented a hedonistic youth culture which had only recently arrived in Japan. The ''

gyaru ( ja, ギャル) , is a Japanese fashion subculture. The term ''gyaru'' is a Japanese transliteration of the English slang word . The term for was introduced in Japan by the American jeans company ''Lee'', who introduced a new line of jea ...

'' subculture found its expression in high school girls and office ladies alike transforming into Juliana girls in the evening, whereas men often came to the club in business suits.

References

The club "Disco Queen" in chapters 18, 19, and 21 of the

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

manga ''No Side'' by is a reference to Juliana's, down to the white feather fans used by the dancers. The club Juliana's is mentioned several times in the '' shōjo'' manga ''

Hana Yori Dango , is a Japanese ''shōjo'' manga series written and illustrated by Yoko Kamio and set in Tokyo, Japan, and the fictional "Eitoku Academy" (an elite school for children from rich families). It tells the story of Tsukushi Makino, a girl fr ...

'' by

Yoko Kamio Yoko may refer to: People * Yoko (name), a Japanese feminine given name; variants include Yōko and Yohko * Yoko Gushiken (具志堅用高, born 1955), Japanese professional boxer * Yoko Taro (横尾太郎, born 1970), Japanese video game di ...

(神尾葉子). Earthquake Bird movie has club scenes heavily influenced by Juliana's and bodycon fashion styles.

Notes

References

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

"Juliana's craze ceases"
September 1, 1994. Accessed 2 July 2017. * Brand, Jude. ''Tokyo Night City''. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1993. . * Kawakami, Sumie
"Survivors: two approaches to survival in Japan's unkind economy: meet the fighter and the surfer - H.I.S. president Hideo Sawada and Goodwill Group CEO Masahiro Origuchi"
''Japan, Inc.'', December 2002. Accessed 10 August 2008. * Schilling, Mark. "Juliana's" in ''The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture''. New York: Weatherhill, 1997. . * Sterngold, James

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', October 18, 1992. Accessed 2 July 2017. * Trends in Japan

June 30, 2000. Accessed 10 August 2008. {{coord, 35, 38, 47, N, 139, 45, 12, E, region:JP-13_type:landmark_source:kolossus-jawiki, display=title Dance venues Nightclubs in Japan Heisei period Sojitz

Musical style and legacy

Cultural impact

References

See also

Notes

References