Soul Sister Tokyo-Style

Shawn Stockman and Nathan Morris of the U.S. doo-wop quartet Boyz II Men did more than produce 20-year-old Yuki Koyanagi's latest CD, Intimacy . By executing a transpacific high five, they helped legitimize one of the strangest social trends in the land of the rising sun: Japanese who want to dress, act and sing as black as they can.

For nearly a decade, a subcult of young Japanese has tried breaking free of the country's conformity by replicating and co-opting 'hood images they've been fed by Hollywood. Japanese girls are so into the trend that marketers have invented labels...