Musts for modern girls
●The teenagers exchange from 30 to 100 e-mails with their cellphones every day. Heavy e-mailing goes on at night.
●Purikura is the prerequisite tool for making friends. Albums are crammed with tiny photos taken with friends at game centers.
●Karaoke became a favorite activity when shops slashed prices about 10 years ago.
　The handy guide also gives a detailed account of “loose socks.” Readers will learn how the baggy white socks appeared 10 years ago and, after several rises and fans, settled into the current standard length of one meter.
　Then there is the nanchatte seifuku, the “just-joking” uniform. This fad has girls dressing in coveted uniforms from other schools or carrying bags from boys' schools.
　Nakamura is from Yamaguchi Prefecture. Her first acquaintance with joshikosei took place in the mid-1980s, when she arrived in Tokyo to begin college.
　When she saw a long line of fashionable high school girls crowding a Shibuya boutique that allegedly catered to a teenage celebrity, she was impressed-almost shocked.
　Nakamura reminisces: “Their rapid-fire conversation, which I would catch on trains, was just as impressive. They were flashy, and I felt their insatiable curiosity."
　She wanted to find a way to channel their youthful energy into a business. In 1986, Nakamura established a marketing group of joshikosei only. After graduating from college in 1988, she launched Boom Planning.
　Companies come to Nakamura seeking help from her joshikosei group.
　The girls offer frank opinions on behalf of the consumer and have helped manufacturers develop soft drinks and cosmetics.
　Nakamura says: “Remember, the asashan (morning shampoo) and tamagotchi crazes began with high school girls."
　Young girls who wanted their hair looking fresh started monopolizing the bathroom early in the morning.
Tamagotchi is the egg-shaped virtual pet that had to be fed, loved and groomed-and became a huge seller.
　At the same time, the media spotlighted a dark side of these young women, making much of enjo-kosai, a euphemism for prostitution or dating older men for money.
　Nakamura insists: “It's a pity. A few things done by a few girls got blown out of proportion."
　She has interacted directly with about 5,000 high school girls. The girls affectionately call her Yakkco-san and have no qualms talking to her about private issues like their families or friends. Many who have graduated from joshikosei to become wage-earning adults still drop by Nakamura's office.
　One thing that worries her is the cellphone and how it has affected joshikosei.
　First of all, the way they make friends has changed. The moment girls meet and click, they exchange contact addresses and a “friendship" is established. However, the friendship can be fickle. Girls keep changing addresses to drop unwanted friends.
　Nakamura warns: "They can leave the relationship whenever they want. It's a safety net. Stress-free relationships are making them less tolerant."
　And of course, all this socializing does not come free of charge.
　The number of girls who take on part-time jobs to pay their phone bills has surged.
　“They are busy after school. And since many mothers work, families do not sit down together for dinner on weekdays anymore. A lot of the girls go on crash diets, sometimes losing five to 10 kilograms. But they are still growing. I worry about their health."