"Numero," meaning "number" in French, is a French fashion magazine founded by Babette Gien in 1999. Following the end of postmodern fashion in 1990, when real clothing became synonymous with the forefront of fashion, "Numero," expressing sophisticated French modernity through edgy visuals, debuted and became a hot topic among fashion insiders from the moment it was first published. This somewhat indie-esque magazine defied expectations that it would be overtaken by mainstream fashion titles like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Instead, it maintained its unique stance and rose to become a global fashion magazine.

In Japan, there was a certain aversion to fashion magazines, and they were considered difficult to make profitably in terms of both circulation and advertising. However, in the late 1990s, the success of ELLE Japon and the arrival of Vogue prompted advertisers to take action. Advertising serves two purposes: to enhance a brand's image and to link it to actual sales. For luxury brands, controlling their image is a key issue, and no matter how large the circulation, it is deemed difficult to maintain a relationship with a magazine that does not fit that image. Furthermore, more than 30 years after luxury brands arrived in Japan, their customers were aging, and it was time to cultivate new customers. This meant that even fashion magazines with low circulations had to include luxury brand advertisements. Sensing this trend and betting on "Numero," an IT company called M Factory established a subsidiary, La Cachette, and became the exclusive import agent for the French edition of Numero, inserting a tabloid version of the French edition into the magazine. A few years later, they began searching for a potential editor-in-chief in preparation for the launch of the Japanese edition. "In 2005, while I was an editor at Vogue, I got a call from them saying they were looking for an editor-in-chief for Numero and wanted to recommend me. Since I had no experience, I had to find the right person. They suggested that a fashion director might be able to do the job, so I met with someone from La Cachette," says current Numero Editor-in-Chief, Kyoko Tanaka. Following strong requests from La Cachette, Kyoko Tanaka eventually accepted the role. She left Vogue in October 2005 and, with one assistant, began building the Japanese editorial department for Numero. She was given a spacious office on the 39th floor of Roppongi Hills, the same building as parent company M Factory. However, following the Livedoor scandal in January of the following year, which resulted in the arrest of Takafumi Horie and several other members of Livedoor (located on the 38th floor), banks began to tighten lending to IT-related companies. As a result, while keeping a close eye on the shrinking scale of its parent company, the editorial department moved to Motoyoyogi and, together with its advertising sales partner, Tsunemi Daisaku, began to conduct calculations for the launch of the magazine. After repeatedly downsizing staff, reducing company expenses, and conducting simulations, a realistic image of the launch finally emerged.

However, after more than a year of preparation, on January 23, 2007, with the launch imminent, La Cachette's executives urgently requested that we find a buyer for the entire business. Their request was stern: if no buyer was found within a week, we should be prepared for the magazine to be cancelled.

Considering the running costs and cash flow of publishing a monthly fashion magazine, even getting to the point of launching a magazine would have been difficult for a startup company weakened by the aftermath of the collapse of the dot-com bubble.

When Editor-in-Chief Tanaka learned that Fusosha was open to publishing a women's magazine featuring luxury brands, he visited then-executive director Asakura and President Katagiri and presented the details of the project and his secret strategy for success. As a result, a week later he received a response from them saying they would take on Numero.

"Really, it was a deep impact, wasn't it? I was in my last month of pregnancy at the time, but I lost 3kg."

Yes, women are strong, mothers are strong. You have to be that tough to be an editor-in-chief.

Continued on 8/12.