Naomi Watanabe is a famous personality in Japan these days. I didn’t know much about her (just what she looked like) and when I saw that Fukushima City’s shopping center SPAL was hosting an exhibit called “Naomi’s Party,” I decided to check it out.

I went on a weekday–and I was very surprised at how many people were there who also wanted to see the exhibit! Almost all women. But many women!

Naomi Watanabe is funny, stylish, and very entertaining.

She does all sorts of things: dances, sings, designs and so on.

Me in one room of the exhibit. I think the piles of food is supposed to be Naomi poking fun at her own weight. She’s overweight–and she owns it! My opinion is this is refreshingly wonderful in Japan, where women are under a lot of pressure to be stick thin.

Naomi’s bedroom….

Naomi does her makeup…(this was a video)

She’s definitely known for her extreme creativity.

Naomi pillows

Food from Taiwan…she’s half Chinese (from Taiwan) on her mom’s side. A woman at the exhibit explained it’s the reason why these particular foods were picked. They are all from Taiwan, and they honor her Taiwan side.

The gift shop

The gift shop

Like I said, it’s fantastic to see a confident overweight and beautiful woman. Obviously Naomi Watanabe is more popular than I thought, because there were so many exhibit-goers. Some of them were true Naomi Watanabe-lovers. (To tell the truth, I myself don’t pay much attention to celebrities, American or Japanese.)

Here is a news article about her popularity:

NAOMI ARTICLE

She says in the article: “In Japan, larger-sized women couldn’t wear what they wanted. They couldn’t wear skirts, they would wear only black and would never show any skin,” Watanabe said. “Of course, larger women want to be fashionable, too, but there weren’t any fashionable clothes for us.”

Amy’s opinion: This is very true!!!!! I am plus-sized and get almost all my clothes from America because there is nothing (literally) for me in Japan. Even shoes!!!!! My feet aren’t fat, they aren’t even big! Just normal.

Personally, while many Japanese woman are tiny (height and weight), there are enough tall women and enough plus-size women in Japan to support more choices for them. There must be some sort of conspiracy, or possibly the CEO’s of the current stores are very out of touch with today’s reality.