敞篷車、高墊肩：重溫日本站在世界之巔的80年代

TOKYO — Kaori Masukodera remembers, barely, riding as a child with her mother, her hair teased and her lips bright red, in the family’s convertible to the beach. It was the last gasp of the 1980s, a time of Champagne, garish colors and bubbly disco dance-floor anthems, and the last time many people in Japan felt rich and ascendant.

東京——增子寺香織(Kaori Masukodera，音)還模糊地記得，小時候她和媽媽坐家里的敞蓬車去海灘玩。媽媽的頭發(fā)向后梳，嘴上涂著鮮艷的口紅。那是1980年代的最后一絲氣息，那是一個充滿香檳、艷麗色彩和歡快迪斯科舞曲的時代，也是許多日本人感覺自己富有、蒸蒸日上的最后時代。

A so-called Lost Decade and many economically stagnant years later, the family’s convertible and beach vacations are long gone — but Masukodera is helping to bring the rest of Japan’s bubble era back. She performs in a pop-music duo called Bed In that borrows heavily from the keyboard lines, electric drums and power chords of the ‘80s. They dress ‘80s, too: The shoulder pads are big, the skirts are mini and the hues are Day-Glo when they aren’t just plain shiny.

在經歷了所謂的“失去的十年”以及多年的經濟停滯之后，家里的敞篷車和海灘度假早已不復存在，但增子寺正在幫助重現(xiàn)日本泡沫時代的其他回憶。她是一個名為Bed In的流行音樂二人組的成員，她們大量使用80年代的鍵盤旋律、電鼓和強力和弦。她們穿的也是80年代的衣服：高墊肩和熒光色調的迷你裙，那時候它們可不是一般的閃閃發(fā)亮。

“Until a few years ago, most people saw the bubble period as a negative legacy, and it was considered quite tacky,” said Masukodera, 32, wearing a tight blazer with jutting shoulder pads emblazoned with images of the Tokyo nightscape, paired with a miniskirt and gold jewelry.

“直到幾年前，大部分人都認為，泡沫時代是負面遺產，很俗氣，”32歲的增子寺說。她穿著一件有著高聳墊肩的緊身外套，上面印著東京夜景的圖像，搭配了迷你裙和黃金首飾。

“That completely changed in the last few years,” she added. “Now people recognize it as kind of a cool period.”

“但在過去幾年里，這種觀念完全改變了，”她接著說，“現(xiàn)在，人們覺得那個時代還挺酷的。”

Japan is in the midst of its most prosperous period in decades, as the economy cranks up and companies scramble for increasingly scarce workers. Still, for many people in Japan, that only underlines how far the country has fallen from the heights of the ‘80s — wages are barely rising, the population is aging and shrinking, and many feel that Japan’s best days are over.

日本目前正處于幾十年來最繁榮的時期，經濟加速發(fā)展，企業(yè)爭奪日益稀缺的勞動力。盡管如此，在許多日本人看來，這只是更為凸顯日本已從80年代的高點跌落了許多——目前的工資幾乎沒有上漲，人口正在老化和縮減，許多人認為，日本最好的時候已經過去了。

That feeling has helped fuel nostalgia for the last time Japan was unquestionably on top of the world, joining a global reappreciation for the ‘80s in general.

這種感覺令人們更加懷念日本最后一次確實站在世界之巔的時刻，此外這也和全球對80年代的重新評價有關。

Bed In’s fashion has become a fixture in local magazines. Similar ‘80s attire now gets big play in glossy publications like the Japanese version of Vogue. A popular comedian who goes by the name Nora Hirano has shot to fame by mocking the era with her boxy power suits and brick-size mobile phone. Her outfit became a popular Halloween costume last year.

Bed In采取的風尚已成為當地一些雜志的固定內容。類似的80年代風格服裝如今在日本版《Vogue》等時尚雜志上大放光彩。一位名為平野千秋(Nora Hirano)的喜劇演員因為模仿那個時代寬大的強勢套裝和磚頭大小的手機而名聲大噪。去年，她的服裝成了流行的萬圣節(jié)服裝。

Then there is the Maharaja. A disco chain that ignited a boom in similar clubs more than 30 years ago, Maharaja clubs have reopened across Japan over the last five years to cater to nostalgic baby boomers, curious millennials and unwitting tourists.

還有王公迪斯科俱樂部(Maharaja)。三十多年前，這家迪斯科連鎖店引發(fā)了此類俱樂部的繁榮，在過去五年里，王公俱樂部在日本各地重新開放，接待懷舊的嬰兒潮一代、好奇的千禧一代以及不明所以的游客。

Many young Japanese like to re-enact the era through wild limousine rides through Tokyo’s streets. Called princess parties by one event-planning company, they are aimed at giving otherwise frugal young women a chance to dress up and cruise the streets the way their mothers might have in another era.

日本的很多年輕人喜歡乘坐豪華轎車在東京街道上穿梭，以此重溫那個時代。一家活動策劃公司搞了一個名為“公主派對”的活動，旨在讓節(jié)儉的年輕女性有機會像她們的母親在那個時代那樣，盛裝打扮起來，在街頭巡游。

“I wanted to do this one last time before I start working full time,” said Mirei Sugita, 20, as she curled her long hair and balanced a tiara on her head before heading out for the night. “We never do anything glamorous like this.”

“我想在開始全職工作之前，最后一次參加這個活動，”20歲的米蕾·杉田(Mirei Sugita，音)說。在出門參加這項夜間活動之前，她把長發(fā)燙卷，把頭上的王冠擺正。“我們從沒做過這么令人向往的事情。”

That conspicuous consumption of the ‘80s and the relative lack of it now underline the crucial differences between the two eras.

80年代的炫耀性消費和現(xiàn)在的消費相對匱乏是兩個時代天差地別的根本原因。

During the bubble years, men jockeyed to take women out on expensive dates and young people flooded ski resorts and other overseas travel destinations. In Tokyo, taxis were so hard to catch at night that people waved 10,000-yen bills — worth nearly $100 in today’s money — to get the drivers’ attention.

在泡沫時代，男士爭相帶女士出去約會，出手闊綽。年輕人大量涌向滑雪勝地和其他海外旅游景點。在東京，晚上很難打車，以至人們要揮舞著一萬日元的大鈔——幾乎相當于今天的100美元——才能引起司機的注意。

“It just feels like it was a more forgiving time,” said Mai Chusonji, 30, the other member of Bed In, recalling how her mother said she could barely remember the era because she was “out having too much fun.”

“感覺那是一個更加寬容的時代，”Bed In的另一名成員，30歲的中尊寺萬井(Mai Chusonji，音)說。她回憶說，她母親自稱幾乎想不起那個時代了，因為她“出去玩得太開心了”。

“There’s so much more pressure on young people now to avoid any mistakes, to make sure they’re stable,” Chusonji said.

“現(xiàn)在年輕人承受的壓力大多了，要避免出現(xiàn)任何錯誤，要確保穩(wěn)定，”中尊寺萬井說。

The economic boom back then helped draw Japan’s women into the workforce, a process that continues fitfully to this day. Bed In’s latest video nods to the era by parroting “trendy dramas,” a subgenre of TV programs of the bubble era that depicted the busy lives of young Japanese career women.

那時候的經濟繁榮吸引日本女性加入勞動力大軍。這個過程斷斷續(xù)續(xù)，一直持續(xù)到現(xiàn)在。Bed In的最新視頻通過模仿“時尚劇”向那個時代致敬。“時尚劇”是泡沫時代的一類電視節(jié)目，描述日本年輕職業(yè)女性的忙碌生活。

That era came to an abrupt end. Japan’s stock market crashed in 1990, and property prices plummeted. The period that followed is often called the Lost Decade, as Japan grappled with falling prices, slow growth and burdensome debt.

那個時代戛然而止。1990年，日本股市崩盤，房價暴跌。接下來的時期通常被稱作“失去的十年”，日本物價下跌、增長緩慢、債務負擔沉重。

Japanese households now spend less of their disposable income than they did in the ‘80s, in part because of stagnant wages and worries about the future. The government has struggled to get consumers to open their wallets. Last year, the government introduced “Premium Friday,” a program that encourages companies to let workers leave early one Friday a month so they have extra time to shop and contribute to the economy.

日本家庭現(xiàn)在的可支配收入開支不及80年代，這在一定程度上是因為工資水平停滯不前和對未來的擔憂。政府努力想讓消費者打開錢包。去年，政府推出“優(yōu)質周五”(Premium Friday)計劃，鼓勵企業(yè)允許員工在一個月的某個周五提前下班，以便他們有額外的時間購物，為經濟作出貢獻。

A 2017 survey by Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, a research group affiliated with a life insurance company, found that a majority of young people shy away from spending because they are concerned about the future. About four-fifths of people in their 20s said they wanted a stable life with a predictable future, something that has become harder to find in a country where wages are not growing and large numbers of people work under temporary contracts.

隸屬于一家人壽保險公司的研究機構第一生命經濟研究所(Dai-ichi Life Research Institute)在2017年進行的一項調查發(fā)現(xiàn)，大部分年輕人避免花錢，因為他們對未來感到擔憂。在20多歲的人群中，大約五分之四的人表示希望過未來可以預見的穩(wěn)定生活。在一個工資不漲，大量勞動者簽的都是臨時合同的國家，要過上這種生活就更難了。

“Young people today feel anxious because they live in unstable times,” said Yohei Harada, who leads a team of researchers that focuses on youth culture at the advertising agency Hakuhodo. “That’s why there are more people searching for stability and civil servant jobs have become so popular.”

“現(xiàn)在的年輕人感到焦慮，是因為他們生活在不穩(wěn)定的時代，”在廣告公司博報堂(Hakuhodo)率領一批研究人員專門研究年輕人文化的原田與平(Yohei Harada，音)說。“所以尋求穩(wěn)定的人逐漸增加，公務員的工作變得大受歡迎。”

When young people do try to emulate the glamour of the bygone era, they do it on tighter budgets.

當年輕人真的嘗試效仿過去那個時代的魅力時，他們的預算比那時候少。

On a recent evening, six university students picked through racks of colorful dresses in Nishi-Azabu, a tony neighborhood in Tokyo. Paying about $60 each, they can rent designer dresses and ride in a limousine for an hour as part of a princess party.

前不久的一個傍晚，在東京的潮流地帶西麻布，六名大學生在架子上的艷麗禮服中挑選。每人花大約60美元，她們就能租到名牌禮服，并乘坐豪華轎車一小時。這是公主聚會的一項活動。

Anipla, the company that hosts the parties, said limousine rentals had become its most popular service in the last few years.

舉辦這種聚會的公司Anipla說，在過去幾年里，豪車租賃成了最受歡迎的服務。

Walking off to catch their limo, Ayame Michigu, 20, said it would be their “first and last” time shelling out for such an experience.

步行趕去坐豪華轎車時，20歲的道口菖蒲(Ayame Michigu，音)說，這將是她們“第一次也是最后一次”燒錢感受這種體驗。

“I haven’t really thought about my future yet, but I know I have to start considering it soon,” she said. “My parents want me to have a stable job. They keep talking about how important that is.”

“我還沒有真正想過我的未來，但我知道很快就必須開始考慮了，”她說。“父母希望我有一份穩(wěn)定的工作。他們一直在說這多么重要。”

Asked if they planned to go out clubbing or drinking afterward, the women shook their heads.

被問到結束后是否打算去酒吧或喝點東西時，她們都搖頭了。

“I’m hungry,” one of them said. “Maybe we could eat something, or maybe we should just go home.”

“我餓了，”其中一個說。“也許我們可以吃點東西，也許我們應該直接回家。”