My intention in posting this is not to crush anyone's dreams.  I don't want anyone to stop wearing what they wear.  I just want you guys to know, because it seems as though a lot of people don't.

I have been doing some die-hard research on this for almost a year, and this is what I have concluded:

The Harajuku that we all know and love- the one with decoras, lolitas, punks. goths, and cosplayers crowding the meiji-jingu bridge, posing or hiding from tourists- is dying.

These days, even on Sunday afternoons, the meiji-jungu bridge is almost completly empty, except for a few die-hard cosplayers and that guy who wears the pink outfit with the bear mask (you know who I'm talking about).  Punks. goths, and lolitas still exist, they just don't hang out there as much.

Decora fashion is dead.  I mean the real, old school, 20 clips in your hair, wearing three different pairs of socks, all in pink and black decora.  There are styles like it (fairy kei, the "6%dokidoki style," etc), but they aren't truly it.  And kids that wear those things don't hang out on the bridge.

Many gyaru fashions are dead, too, mostly the old-school ones and the extreme ones (yamanba, ect.)  But those styles died out a while ago.  I don't know much about the gyarus, though.  The only gyaru style that I see still prevailing is himegyaru.

From what I can glean from photos, the thinning out of the Harajuku bridge crowd started around 2008.  Even in 2009, there was still life on the bridge, though not as much.  It was in 2010 that the change really happened, I'm pretty sure.

I think it happened because Harajuku had gotten so touristy, and the kids were just tired of it.  Now the Harajuku Fashion Walks are held in an attempt to bring back the Harajuku bridge crowd, but I don't think it's helped much.

As I said before, punk, gothic, and Lolita still exist, and those people still shop in Harajuku and stuff, they just don't hang out on the bridge.

But, I predict (and honestly I'm just dying hoping that this really happens) that this will be a cycle.  The tourists will eventually realize what's happened, and the bridge will become less of an attraction.  Then, kids will be like, "Hey! Remember how kids used to hang out on the bridge?  Let's do that!"  and the cosplay population will start to increase again.

For all you decoras and gyarus out there, keep wearing what you wear!  Just because it's not there anymore doesn't mean you can't keep wearing it.  Maybe it'll be us that remind the Japanese kids in later years of what they're missing out on :)

I don't think there's something to be sad about. Styles change and evolves (thanks god, what if i'd still be wearing the same clothes like i did in the 90s!) decora and ganguro died and new styles like mori and dolly entered the scene. It's possible the mori girls in their 20s maybe once were the decoras when they were 15 and it's a natural part of live to move forward and not hang out on a bridge anymore. It feel like something kids would do, hang out on a brige I mean. The places who were popular to hang out by when I was a kid are since long uncool and forgotten, there are other "in" places now. That how it is.

I heard that a big change for Japan was the tsunami and nuclear disaster last year. The county fell into a depression, not an economic one like people of refers to when using country and depression in the same scentence, but i think the people felt heartbroken and afraid due to all these tragic events and the country and it's people still haven't recovered or healed their wounds. I don't think the bridge being empty has anything to do with tourists, but thats just my own personal opinion about this subject.

I agree with you, but I need to mention, that the steryotypical gyaru neiborhood has always been shibuya, and gyaru is still going strong it's just not as extreme as it used to be. Harajuku has actually been slowly declining since the early 2000s when they opened the harajuku neiborhood to traffic (it used to be pedestrian only, which is why kids were attracted to it)

At the end of the day, fashion is a cycle, decora and yamamba have died, just like fruits and ganguro which came before them. But new fashions are being born every day, and now that there are new styles for those who don't want to look like everyone else, like fairy kei, mori, dolly, and cult party.

I know about Gyaru being centered in Shibuya (I don't know why I didn't say that), I just meant that I don't know all of the gyaru styles and what's trendy in Gyaru right now.  I don't really even know why I brought it up :P

I know it's been dying for a long time, too, because of the taking away of "pedestrian paradise."  It's just that in recent years everything vanished pretty rapidly.

And you and Zeruda are right- times change.  I'm so horribly nostalgic that I just can't get over it (I'm horribly nostalgic about EVERYTHING).

Thank you guys for posting; what you've said is helping me to "move on," I guess.  I'm really bad about that (moving on, I mean).  I'm just really sad that I missed Harajuku in it's prime.  I'll still go there someday, though :)

I guess one positive thing is that this means that people are wearing their favorite fashions in their everyday life and space. They don't feel like they have to hang out in a certain area like the Bridge in order to be able to wear the clothes they love. They can just integrate it into their lives. One thing I've noticed is that some fashions are very able to become "lifestyles", so that the characteristics of the fashion go beyond clothing and extend into how people choose to decorate their homes, where they hang out and spend their free time and the types of things they do for fun. That kind of extention would naturally require people to be in many different places, not just one area, like the Bridge. 

Although there may be less people hanging around the bridge, I think that if I go to Japan I would still see visiting it on Sunday as a must-do activity. It might not be the same as it was, but people will always remember how is used to be. And Japanese street fashions will continue to evolve regardless of where they choose to meet up. 

Yeah, I would, too.  That's true. 

I agree with this.

From what I understand by talking to people from Japan involved in those fashion subcultures, a lot of people into Lolita or Gyaru are doing different kinds of activities in their clothing now, rather than just standing around on a bridge. I think, honestly, this is a good thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6q2LTWIegc

 I watched this and thought back to this thread.

Maybe Harajuku will recover with a new generation.