Kogyaru magazine?!.... A deep dive into HJ's most controversial magazine and the world of elementary school gals

 ゃおっす It's Spacy!

Recently I've been deliberating on what I should do with this blog, mainly due to mental burn out I was considering quitting blogging, but very recently while looking for mags online, I came across something that spiked my interest, and that was the magazine Kogyaru's cover being written in entirely english! For those who don't know too much about Kogyaru this may just seem weird, but for us who do this caused some widespread concern. After thinking about it more and more, I thought I would do some research, and compile it into a blog post. So, Welcome to Magazine Discussion Episode 4- Kogyaru!

Content WARNING ⚠️:

If you are sensitive to the topics of possible child exploitation, or in general sensitive to talking about children in regard to sexualisation and pedophilia, do yourself some good and do not continue reading from here. I will try upload more so if this blog post isn't for you, maybe something i'll post later will be, take care!

This post will also be pretty text heavy!

Now my disclaimer is out the way, lets start talking.

Kogyaru is a magazine created by HJ Co., Ltd., which is the same company/publisher of EGG and Happie Nuts revived magazines. Kogyaru as a magazine first started making the rounds in the spring/summer of 2023, where the magazine first emerged. Since then, Kogyaru has been surrounded by a MIRIAD of controversies. 

The magazine first made their emergence in April 2023, however, these kids have been promoting with EGG since before kogyaru magazine actually released. Kogyaru is a pretty self explainable magazine, but if its not, the magazine centres the lives of elementary school gals, creating discussions about what's in their bags, past times outside of school and even relationships (these gals are all 8-11 mind you).

Something to understand about Kogyaru, is that these gals are all managed by their parents, this is not a case of simply HJ exploiting these kids, but also a case of their parents not simply just enabling it, but using their kids as a forefront to distract people from criticising them (but I will speak more on that later).

The controversies surrounding Kogyaru actually predate the magazines existence. If we jump a bit before Kogyaru was announced. Many of these 'models' already had pre existing social media presences, where they had fans cheering them on. Now, a big part of these fans were actually older women, some with kids who thought this was all cute and harmless, however, these babies also had older male fans who would consume their content. This content varied from account to account, but some concerning things I've witnessed were fully grown men complimenting Kogyaru model Noapi while she was pole dancing. Yes, pole dancing is a good exercise, thats not the point, the point is that these kids had been exposed to people who probably don't have the best of intentions before the magazine even AIRED!

As the magazine announces its creation, these kogyaru 'models' go pretty viral, as videos of them having fun amass tens of millions of views on both instagram and tik tok. We all know gyaru in is a subculture where fashion and makeup are fundamentals, so when the non gals found this account and started going feral, some gals jumped to their defence to explain to these people theyre just gyarus, however, I think it would be somewhat hard to defend Kogyaru magazine these days.

Kogyaru as an entity mainly existed in book in book volumes of egg magazines, rather then an independent magazine itself, only recently being announced in their February 2023 volume that they would be going independent, and that they would release their own solo magazine in May, so even though this is called a Magazine discussion, it's not actually a magazine in its own right. Originally, I found it really confusing why they seemingly had their own magazine despite not being available for physical or online purchase, turns out there was no kogyaru magazine to actually purchase. Sometimes magazines take about a year to get publishing.

However, the magazine faced major backlash, mainly from gaijin gals and concerned people, who had witnessed an influx of sexual predators writing predatory comments towards these children. Many of these non japanese people expressed their discomfort with these kids dressing the way they do, or even participating in gyaru as a culture itself. The biggest gyaru magazine, being egg, had always targeted teenage gals/ gals aged like 15-20,but most gyaru media has never been explicitly made for literal children like the Kogyaru magazine has, or atleast from what I have seen, so to see kids so young participating in a subculture not targeted to their age group made some people worry if these children were being exploited for the shock factor. This shock factor can be chalked up to the shock factor of seeing not only gals like these in 2023/4, but also seeing gals this young.

It's now a good time to mention how HJ as a company has not stayed away from sexualising its young models, perfect example being is Erika's infamous verse in gal is mind, which she sung when she was only 17, having a 17 year old girl sing about how fresh and tight she is definitely ain't a good look. Originally myself I actually believed Erika was 20+, so to find out she was born in 2004 and doing photoshoots in playboy outfits, it definitely made me start raising eyebrows at egg. Another thing that really made me view new egg differently was how young these models were becoming. Momoa was modelling for egg at 14, and EGG is still pushing 14yr old models like Junchan. EGG has always had young models, there are plenty of gal models that started modelling for gyaru magazines around 15, but 14? Very interestingly, in interviews from kogyaru models, some models actually stated previously mentioned 14yr old Junchan as a role model for them, that inspired them to strive to become EGG models. Although it is sort of cute, the thought of 1 child being a role model for another child to model under a magazine that has had minors say sexual things is a bit disturbing to me.

Now, back to talking about Kogyaru. After lots of backlash and questioning from the gaijin gal community, HJ decide to do the most cowardly thing they could ever do, and make these CHILDREN release a RAP SONG, essentially saying F you to haters and people that criticise their parents for letting their child engage in these activities, SHIRANKEDO. Theres a reason I call this move cowardly, and thats because using your children as a front to divert criticism in the name of 'us gals do whatever tf we want and we love it so fuck you and your opinion on our parenting' is a sad move. They even had these models directly address these criticisms from people in an interview. Making a 10yr old address the concerns directed towards the parents and not the parents themselves, then releasing some half ass rap song as a response, its disgustingly sloppy. 

In all honesty, SHINRANKEDO isn't all that contreversial, the song is mostly 'I love putting stickers on my randoseru, I'm so young but so kawaii' but thats until after the first chorus, it says '家族の悪口ゆうのは許せない' Which can be summarised to say 'Don't talk shit about my parents'.... Or what they direcly translated themselves, in which they say don't speak ill of my family

Although the intentions of the lyrics aren't 100% clear (in my opinion) I think its also a direct jab at people who criticise these girls parents, which is why I called this song cowardly and stupid. Now, it's certain KOGYARU were gonna release a song anyway, thats because after Gal is Mind blew up, EGG decided that they were gonna make all the other magazines release shitty half asses music in an attempt to spread gyaru world wide and create gyaru domination, which is a good concept, not good when the music is shit, but good concept. However, the delivery of SHIRANKEDO and the direct jabs directed towards the people who aren't too pleased with HJ's and these parents management of their children was a pretty stupid move, as they seemingly prioritised giving middle fingers to people rather then properly protecting these girls from the audience of pedophiles they were slowly building.

Just a drop in here, we arent even at the tip of the iceberg surrounding controversies surrounding kogyaru, this blog post may end up being my longest so far 😭.

As Kogyaru continued to publish in EGG magazines, some very odd content and stories started coming from the magazine and these girls. In interviews from the models and their parents, the girls describe their inspirations for becoming gals. When talking about the cost of all their beauty treatments, it often totals around £100+ each month. Theres no reason to be spending that much money a month on young children, especially when most of these treatments are things like nails, makeup and hair. These girls also bleach their hair, With 10yr old model Rara stating that bleaching can be painful. I think one of the most obvious problems with Kogyaru is simply that these children should not be exposed to some of the things they are. We talk about idols being too young to debut, I think the same can be applied for these children. Rara is also from Kumamoto prefecture, and if you have a bit of knowledge of japanese prefectures, Kumamoto is in Kyushu.... Which is one of the most southern parts of Japan, not even on the Island of Honshu, to the point where some people travel by planes to get there. Having your 10year old running up and down the country for work is pretty insane to me. I support young girls having a dream but I just cant fathom this.

KOGYARU magazine also talks about these kids getting in relationships, real relationships between children.

However, I think the biggest thing we should talk about is how this will effect these kids later on. 

Junchan is probably considered an elementary school icon amongst the elementary school gal community. However, after she entered middle school, Junchan stated how hard it was to experience a normal school life due to her modelling career. In a Bunshun interview, she stated that in Elementary school, they allowed her to dye her hair, but she wasn't allowed to wear false nails; but when she entered middle school, they wouldn't even let her in the building until her parents made an agreement with the school, however, Junchan is isolated when taking lessons and other school activities, saying 

'junior high school is stricter than elementary school, and at first it was said that you can't even enter the school, but after several discussions, you can now take classes.

However, I can't get involved with other students, so I take a class alone in a separate room, eat school lunch alone, clean alone, and go home. I can't do subjects to study with a large number of people such as physical education and music. I don't know what's going on while I'm at school, so there are a lot of things to worry about...it's hard not to be able to get involved with friends. The entrance and the floor of the classroom are different, and I can't go to see them. It's hard because I have to clean the whole classroom alone.

Mom seems to have a perception that she is a delinquent just by dyeing her hair. As a result of discussing with the school, we came to the conclusion that the classroom will be divided because it may have a negative impact on other students. This is the way we were both convinced, but as a parent, I'm also worried about taking classes alone all the time. It's a difficult problem.'

Junchan is a role model for these little girls, seeing how Junchan struggles due to her modelling career is a possible foresight to the negative effects that being a gal model at this age will have on these girls, with Junchan directly stating 'hmm. I want to take a class with everyone. If that's the case, I'm told to make my hair black, but I can't give up on that. But I think if I continue to study alone, my heart will be sad.'

Honestly I almost teared up reading this part, which is why KOGYARU as a magazine should face a lot more criticism, as there are shining examples through Juna of the consequences of having these girls being social media stars and models at such a young age.

One of the biggest thing KOGYARU magazine and these parents have been criticised for is exposing these girls to pedophiles. I've already touched on this many times, but now it's time to go into more detail.

  One of the biggest and worst ways is definetly Model Noapi. Noapi does pole dancing as a form of excersise, which is fine if its a form of excercise, however, many pedophiles and adults watch this girls content, this makes these videos a breeding ground for pedophiles to consume. Pictures and videos of Noapi in bikinis also have considerably more likes than other content and photos. Ofc, people have pointed out this to the parents, and in response they made SHIRANKEDO. Japanese people have also made the same concerns, so this is not a case of stinky gaijin thinking everything is sexual and sexualising little girls while this stuff is normal in Japan.

Another thing that MAJORLY concerned me when doing my research was this...

If you can't see what I'm trying to point out, look the top image. That is the image of Kogyaru models, Ryuua and Chuke being used as an image cover for a porn website, this is terrifying. This is exactly why  everyone has been criticising KOGYARU, allowing these childrens faces to be plastered all over the internet and allowing pedophiles to roam freely while dissing anyone who shows concern for these kids means people who sexualise these children can do so scot free, no one has taken any measure to protect these children, they don't turn comments off on their social media.

It's obvious you can't do everything in your will power to prevent sexual predators being as such, but giving them leeway to oogle over ur 9yr old in a bikini is gross, and there needs to be a sense of accountability from the people who manage these kids.

My last and final point on this is how staged and fake this feels.

Unlike Juna who was doing gyaru in elementary school, none of these models actually present gal in school, it just makes u wonder how much of this is set up by the parents. Watching the youtube reels for the Kogyaru channel, you can hear the staff and crew in the back instructing and affirming the girls while doing a performance of SHIRANKEDO, almost as if they just got told to rap this and do it well. In their reels and tik toks, it's also obvious to see that the girls are being fed answers to Q&A questions, one reel I watched, the little girl was being asked questions, she initially didn't know what to say, so look to someone seemingly sitting behind the camera, then answered the question, as if she was being told what to say, making the entire reel scripted. Which circles back to the issue of are these children being exploited for views? How much of this is them doing this willingly, and how much of it staged and performative for that cash?

I think we've come to the end of this magazine discussion, This is probably one of my longest posts yet, but since this post is very opinionated due to my distain towards the magazine, here are my final closing words to this disucssion.

In my opinion, KOGYARU as a magazine and the parents of these children have enabled a community of pedophiles to be built around the children as a snub to people who criticise their choices. The reality of this all is that these girls shouldn't be models, and don't need this social media presence and attention no matter how much they actually want it. There should be no gal models under the age of 16, look what is happening to Juna who is being isolated because she wanted to pursue her dream as a model. Fame has its detrimental downsides, which sometimes over shine the stars and lights of being a celeb. For year, EGG has enabled and encouraged young girls to be exploited and sexualised under their magazine, no preventative measures to ensure the safety of underaged models on their own platform, in reality, theres no form of accountability or responsibility for protecting these girls from these people, we are the bad guys for worrying, they simply don't give a shit, in reality I worry deeply for these girls. We are seeing the effects of shoving electronic devices in gen alphas faces, the effects of them being exposed to expensive skin care and cosmetics, clothes and products not made for them which is having a bad effect on their development as children, and honestly I don't see any different in this scenario. These kids with a full face of makeup, crop tops, boots and expensive Iphones generally make me upset, all of this is upsetting.

I think i've wrote everything I could, this is a long read so if you read to the end, thank you very much, im skipping school writing this in a cafe nero so pls appreciate the dedication to the blog I almost left to die 2 days ago

Bye bye - Spacy