It's already November. Many universities are holding school festivals over this three-day weekend. Nearby Waseda University and Gakushuin University are also holding their festivals. Bunka Gakuen, Japan's leading fashion education institution, also holds its annual festival on Culture Day. Because of this, it's been a while since I last lectured, but I'd like to reminisce about my lectures at Atomi Women's University in July, just before summer vacation, and at Keio University in October, just after summer vacation ended.

At Atomi, the class was fashion, so I used my own media as an example to talk about web fashion media. At Keio, the class was a reading seminar taught by a professor specializing in aesthetics and art history, so I talked about fashion, aesthetics, and media theory. It may sound grand, but in reality, I communicated frankly, interactively, and openly with the third- and fourth-year students.

I asked them a few questions, but to put it simply, kids today aren't interested in fashion. I'm sure a Senken Shimbun survey found that fashion school students' favorite brands are all fast fashion, and that's true; a full outfit costing 10,000 yen is actually quite common. And as a digital native, they don't read magazines. This is also true. To gather information, they use the internet on their smartphones and social media apps like Twitter and Facebook. When asked about the breakdown of monthly expenses, social expenses (including food and drink) and cell phone bills account for the majority. Incidentally, the sample size was approximately 300 people from Atsumi and 15 from Keio. Jewelry is cheap, and information is free—the reality for today's kids. Compared to when I was a student, many foreign fast fashion companies have entered the market, and I thought it was an advantage that trendy clothing is now cheap and easy to purchase. I thought it lowered the barrier to becoming interested in fashion. However, today's students, even though they've gotten jobs and are earning money, are not in the mood to spend a lot of money on clothing. The trend is, "It's fine, this quality for this price." In other words, they stop at fast fashion.

To put it simply, in Japan, where the birthrate is declining and the population is aging, high fashion will increasingly become a luxury item. As the population ages, brands will also age and eventually disappear... While this won't happen suddenly, the market will gradually shrink.

Another major problem is that people don't recognize that expensive items have a specific background and that it takes time and money to make them. This is because they don't cultivate the sensibility and discernment required to begin with. A professor at Keio University once said that discernment is intelligence. It is intelligence that creates culture. Educating young people is also one of the missions of online media, in order to create the culture of the future.

Now, a large-scale Dior exhibition began at the end of October, and there is apparently an invitational program for students. I encourage not only fashion schools but also general universities to participate. I want everyone to immerse themselves in a dazzling world of beauty. And why not explore the various shops and department stores in Ginza to see, touch, and try on the items? It's okay to stroll around Ginza during class for a day. If we don't, the day will come when fashion truly comes to an end.