Harper's Bazaar Japan (hereafter referred to as Bazaar) was launched on August 28, 2000, just before the new millennium.

While a standard size for an American magazine, it was smaller in size (book size) than Japanese fashion magazines, and the Gothic font, different from the familiar Ming style Bazaar, truly expressed New York modernity. The cover, which conveyed a message to women of the new century, featured a dashing line-up of five models living in the new millennium.

Founding editor-in-chief, Miyuki Tagami, quoted Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief who made Bazaar shine from the 1930s to the 1950s, as saying, "The well-dressed woman and the well-dressed the mind," and said that Bazaar Japan portrays a woman who has a high aesthetic sense in everything she can see and everything she can't see.

Incidentally, Carmel Snow is the famous editor-in-chief who, after Christian Dior's debut collection, exclaimed, "This is the New Look!" and her words were immediately spread around the world, making Dior a celebrity overnight.

Harper's BAZAAR, founded in 1867, is the world's oldest fashion magazine. It has always had a rival relationship with Vogue, and there have been many clashes between the two at the collection venues. When Liz Tilberis, editor-in-chief of Harper's BAZAAR, who was a colleague of Anna Wintour, the current editor-in-chief of American Vogue, at British Vogue, and a friendly rival, fell ill, an unusual memorial issue was published, featuring a tribute to Liz on every page, including advertisements. Following the loss of her editor-in-chief, BAZAAR was replaced by Kate Betts, former fashion features director at American Vogue. Kate Betts changed the typeface of the title, which was the face of the magazine, revamped it with a youthful style, and employed up-and-coming photographers to propose modern fashion, suggesting a determination toward the new millennium. The Japanese edition was launched to coincide with this timing. When Miyuki Tagami took on the role of editor-in-chief, she felt a sense of destiny in the youthfulness of Kate Betts (then in her 30s), and she decided to take on the challenge. Together with AD Yuji Seta, I traveled to Hearst Magazine in New York and had a friendly meeting with the international department. However, things started to look cloudy as we began creating design templates for the launch, and approval became difficult to obtain.

"They started creating the book based solely on American logic, without understanding Japanese culture. Europeans start by getting to know each other's cultures, so I was initially very confused by the differences," says Tagami.

Although Harper's BAZAAR is globally renowned, there was a big gap in recognition between it and Vogue Nippon, which launched a year earlier. BAZAAR, with its title in a gothic font unfamiliar even in the United States, was not well received, and after just over a year, the editor-in-chief was replaced, leading to a reorganization of the Japanese organization.

Continued on 10/12.