thumb|Kogals, identified by shortened [[Japanese school uniform skirts. The two leftmost girls are also wearing loose socks.]]
In Japanese culture, refers to the members of the Gyaru subculture who are still in high school and who incorporate their school uniforms into their dress style. These high school girls are characterized by the typical bleached hair, make-up, shortened skirts, and wearing of loose socks. The word kogal is anglicized from , a contraction of ("high school gal").
Aside from the miniskirt or microskirt, and the loose socks, kogals favor platform boots, makeup, and Burberry check scarves, and accessories considered kawaii or cute on bags and phones. They may also dye their hair brown and get artificial suntans. They have a distinctive slang peppered with English words. They are often, but not necessarily, enrolled students. Centers of kogal culture include the Harajuku and Shibuya districts of Tokyo, in particular Shibuya's 109 Building. Pop singer Namie Amuro promoted the style. Kogals are avid users of photo booths, with most visiting at least once a week, according to non-scientific polls.
Etymology
The word kogal is a contraction of . It originated as a code used by disco bouncers to distinguish adults from minors. a Japanese pronunciation of the English word "gal". In the 1980s, a was a fashionably dressed woman.
Character
Kogals have been accused of conspicuous consumption, living off their parents and (amateur prostitution/dating service). It is unclear how many girls were actually involved in prostitution. Critics decry their materialism as reflecting a larger psychological or spiritual emptiness in modern Japanese life. Some kogals support their lifestyle with allowances from wealthy parents, living a "parasite single" existence that grates against traditional principles of duty and industry. Though brand-name accessories are part of the kogal look, many kogal may buy these cheaply as knock-off versions of a high-brand item from stalls in back-alley markets like Harajuku. Some feminists "saw the young women as cleverly negotiating their own position in a male patriarchal world".
History
thumb|upright|[[Japanese idol girl group AKB48 performs in kogal uniforms.]]
Japanese fashion began to divide by age in the 1970s with the appearance of magazines aimed at teens. Popteen, the most widely read of these magazines, has been publishing monthly since 1980. While mainstream fashion in the 1980s and early 1990s emphasized girlish and cute (kawaii), publications promoted a sexy aesthetic. Top magazines, including Popteen, Street Jam and Happie Nuts, were produced by editors previously involved in creating pornography for men. These middle school dropouts were thus taking their cues from high school students and attempting to justify their independence by looking and acting older. The gals added their own touches like loose socks and a cellular phone.
The 1993 television special (The Kogal Night) introduced the kogal to a mass audience and provided a model for aspiring kogals to follow. Egg, a fashion magazine for kogals, was established in 1995.
In the mid-1990s, the Japanese media gave a great deal of attention to the phenomenon of ("paid dating") supposedly engaged in by bored housewives and high school students, thus linking kogals to prostitutes. The movie (Bounce Ko Gals) (1997) by Masato Harada depicts kogals prostituting themselves to buy trendy fashion accessories.
Kogal culture peaked in 1998. Kogals were then displaced by another style that gained popularity through Egg: , a gal culture that first appeared in the mid-1990s and used dark makeup combined with heavy amounts of tanning. evolved into another extreme look (though less extreme than ) called ("mountain hag"). As looks grew more extreme, fewer girls were attracted to gal culture. Although there are still female students who sexualize their uniforms, the kogal is no longer a focus of fashion or media attention.
thumb|upright|[[Mirai Suenaga, a mascot for Japan tourism, is dressed in a kogal summer school uniform.]]
Gyaru fashion later reemerged in the form of the skin-whitening , associated with Popteen. One such example of this is the Gal, who take their fashion cues from Hollywood. Clad in stilettos and jewels, these gals parade the streets of Shibuya. The women opting for this style are often gals of previous generations that are returning for this style, which is sexy yet more adult. Unlike their younger counterparts, there is less clubbing and more projecting an image of sky-high social status. Despite this, the Gals are more serious about their lives than other gal groups, with their age placing them in college or the workforce. One of the driving forces behind this is Sifow, a singer and idol that subscribes to the Gal style.
The waves of changing female Japanese beauty culture such as the kogal represent a growing diversity in female beauty which contrasts with the focus on docility and cuteness perpetuated previously. Kogal and its predecessors visually chronicle the evolution of Japan into a consumer culture, visibly displaying the changing values and norms within Japanese culture as consumerism necessitates the displacement of the identity to surface features.
Language
Kogals are identified primarily by looks, but their speech, called , is also distinctive, Gal words may also be created by adding the suffix (from English "-ing") to verbs, for example .