With the global influence of Japanese pop culture and fashion, it's no longer that unusual today to see Japanese text displayed on T-shirts, jackets, or other items of apparel outside of Japan. From the purely visual aspect, written Japanese, with its combination of kanji, hiragana, and katakana, can create interesting designs which are seen as "cool" even when the meaning is not understood.

So, on September 26th, 2021, when a model sauntered down the runway wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with stylishly lettered Japanese text at the ALWAYSUPPORTALENT fashion show at Satisfashion Milano during Milan Fashion Week, most members of the audience were understandably impressed by the effect it created, enhanced by the striking outfit she wore with it. Those who knew what the T-shirt said, however, may have appreciated it even better.

Perhaps that explains why the outfit went viral in Japan. The look came courtesy of Japanese artist and fashion designer Chemi Akutami けみ芥見, known for combining traditional Japanese fashion such as kimono with contemporary street fashion in striking and innovative ways.

Let's get a closer look...

The text, in very stylishly designed and arranged font, says このあと塾 kono ato juku, which literally means "afterwards, cram school" but can be interpreted as "I've got cram school after this." This is a casual phrase that a Japanese student might say, for example, in a LINE conversation with a friend when classes are done for the day.

You can see the model appear at around 9:45 in this video:

The incongruous juxtaposition of the fashionable world of the Milan runway and the very casual phrase lifted from a mundane situation from the lives of Japanese high school students created quite a stir among Twitter users in Japan.

What made the story even more appealing was the way Akutami came up with the T-shirt in the first place. It was based on a suggestion from his friend Satoshi Miyagawa, a gag manga artist recently known for the comedy manga One Operation Joker. Miyagawa's Tweet quickly went viral, garnering nearly 92,000 likes and 25,000 retweets at the time of writing.

The T-shirt is part of a series, now available for sale at the TONO Chemi Akutami AKITSU online shop, called "Funny Cool." In fact, there are two T-shirts, both of them featuring text suggested by Miyagawa, although only one of them appeared on the Milan runway. The second one, which says 『明日5時起き』 ashita go-ji oki, or as also displayed in English, "(I) wake up (at) 5 tomorrow," could also be inspired by the lives of Japanese students, who sometimes need to wake up very early to commute over long distances or to attend morning sports practice.

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If you're interested in purchasing these or other T-shirts by Chemi Akutami, they're both on sale, along with other appealing designs at the TONO Chemi Akutami AKITSU online shop:

Funny Cool 001

• Price: 6,600 JPY (tax included), + 660 JPY domestic shipping
• T-shirt: United Athle 5.6 oz cotton light gray T-shirt
• Sizes: S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL
• Product page

Funny Cool 002

• Price: 6,600 JPY (tax included), + 660 JPY domestic shipping
• T-shirt: United Athle 5.6 oz cotton light gray T-shirt
• Sizes: S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL
• Product page

Although the shop only delivers domestically, you can have items delivered internationally through proxy buying services such as Buyee or White Rabbit Express.