Doll's world: 'Japan's Barbie' casts spell over grown-ups

Licca-chan has been a favourite of Japanese children since she appeared in shops in 1967

Last updated: March 01, 2023 | 08:40

2 MIN READ

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Tokyo: With her wide eyes and demure smile, Licca-chan is known as "Japan's Barbie". And her appeal is spreading to all ages, with adults turning the doll into a social media superstar.

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One fan posts wry videos of the plastic poppet to over a million Instagram followers, while others painstakingly craft miniature clothes and share photos of their fashion shoots.

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Minami Murayama, a 34-year-old homemaker who once had ambitions of becoming a fashion designer, told AFP that her "dream has come true at one-sixth of the size" thanks to Licca-chan.

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"If I see a stylish woman wearing something that I couldn't wear because of my age or body size, Licca-chan can still wear it and look good," said Murayama, who owns around 40 dolls and has hand-made over 1,000 outfits for them.

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Licca-chan has been a favourite of Japanese children since she appeared in toy shops in 1967, and manufacturer Takara Tomy has sold over 60 million of them.

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The company's official biography casts her as an 11-year-old girl with a Japanese designer mother and a French musician father.

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At 22 centimetres (8.5 inches) tall, she is smaller and less glamorous than Barbie, who Murayama describes as "a supermodel" compared with Licca-chan's more "familiar" look.

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Murayama spends hours making clothes for her dolls and favours denim, which her husband helps her bleach and tear to achieve the "distressed" look. She has built a series of intricate sets, using tiny props to decorate mini cafes and fashion studios.

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"There are lots of different jobs I would like to do, such as running a cafe or a bakery or being a fashion designer," she said. "Of course, there's no way I could do them all in real life, but I can do them all in a doll's world."

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