New York Magazine – August 05, 2019

The

CULTURE PAGES

T

he first time

Naomi

Watanabe saw herself on TV was also the first time she realized she might be fat. It was 2008, and the

comedian was making her debut on a Japanese variety show as Beyoncé lip-syncing and dancing to a rendition of “Dreamgirls.” In Japan, the art of campy celebrity impression is known as

mono-

mane.

But no one who looked like Wata-

nabe had attempted Beyoncé before.

“I saw it and thought,

Oh, I might be

curvy. Hahahahaha,

” she tells me through

a translator when we meet in New York, where she lives now (and is still working on her English). “It’s not that I love myself because I am fat. I just love who I am right now. Whatever body I have today, I like to embrace that. That’s my self-love: Love yourself at whatever size you have today.”

A decade later, at 31, Watanabe has

turned into one of Japan’s biggest stars, thanks in part to her body-positive atti-tude. She is the country’s most followed person on Instagram. If you stand at the crossroads in Shibuya, the busy area of Tokyo where Scarlett Johansson wan-dered in

Lost in Translation,

Watanabe’s

always smiling face appears no fewer than

15 times—in ads for fancy fruit

y water, lip-

stick, and clothing. A railway company named a train after her. In 2018, she was one of

Time’

s “25 Most Influential People

on the Internet.” But few in America know of her yet. She’d like to change that. “I’d love to make everyone laugh,” she says. “Not just Japanese people.”

When we meet, it’s one of the hottest

days of New York’s summer so far. Wata-nabe has recently rented an apartment here. In Japan, she has to wear a dis-guise in public to avoid being mobbed by fans. On the Lower East Side, she fits right in. She has not one but two Chanel quilted mini-backpacks, and a fancy Japanese e-cigarette, and wears Gucci rubber slides, jeans, and a T-shirt with a drawing of a woman wearing a mono-kini that even Emily Ratajkowski might deem a little too revealing.

Despite being called the “Beyoncé of

Japan” because of her lip-syncs, Watanabe is more of a mash-up of American female boundary-pushers: Mix Lady Gaga’s defi-ant underdog attitude and ambition with Lizzo’s body positivity, Cardi B’s social-media skills, and Aidy Bryant’s sense of girlish joy, and you get some idea of Wata-nabe’s strengths. She started performing

at 18, contr

ary to the wishes of her mother.

“When I make people laugh, it gives me joy. The feeling is something you can’t describe. It’s almost orgasmic,” she says. When I laugh a little too loudly at her answer, she deadpans, “That felt good.”

Watanabe broke into

monomane

at 20,

primarily impersonating Beyoncé, occa-sionally Lady Gaga. Over time, she became a regular on Japanese variety shows and a key player in the

owarai

tarento

industry, which literally trans-

lates as “talent of laughter.” Next year, she’ll play Tracy Turnblad in the country’s version of

Hairspray.

She was one of the

first Japanese comedians to join Insta-gram and TikTok, where she reposts funny videos and photos of her tongue-in-cheek fashion. She has her own filter on Instagram, which changes every few months (right now, it gives you baby bangs, pink lipstick, and braided mini hair buns that make you look like a baby tiger). One of her most-liked posts shows her in a bathing suit imprinted with pan-cakes with butter pats over her breasts. In an ad campaign, she was shot with her hair put up in hot rollers, tacos filling the center of each curl.

In 2014, Watanabe launched her own

fashion line, Pun

yus, meant to sound

like the Japanese word for “pudgy” (the Japanese often use it to describe baby cheeks), with clothes designed for women up to size 22. While shooting an episode of

Girls

in Japan in 2015, Lena

Dunham discovered Punyus and praised Watanabe on Instagram, saying, “It’s hard to find great clothes for curvy women anywhere, but especially in Japan where petite and cute seem syn-onymous so yeah, she’s kind of radical.”

Technically it’s Watanabe’s second

time living in the city. In 2014, she saved up to live here for three months and study English. She’s back for longer this time to soak up American culture and the creative energy of the city and learn a little more English, relying on friends to translate in the meantime. “In NYC, you have to fight every single day,” she says. “You have to speak out and be vocal about what you want. In my opinion, in Japanese culture, when you say your point of view, people think you’re a snob or are bragging. Here, everyone says what they want and are thinking.”

“By the end of the year,” she continues,

“I want to learn to clap back at other people. In English.”

■

Na

omi Watanabe Is Coming

for America

The Japanese comedian, social-media star, and fashion designer turned a Beyoncé

impression into an empire. Can her success translate?

By Kathleen Hou

STYLING BY YE YOUNG KIM; MAKEUP BY SEONG HEE PARK AT JULIAN WATSON AGENCY; HAIR BY TETSUYA FOR ARTIST, NYC; NAILS BY MEI KAWAJIRI; FASHION ASSISTANCE BY DONSHEA PARKS. RICHARD QUINN CHIFFON GOWN AT W

WW.RICHARDQUINN.LONDON.

64 Photograph by Catherine Servel

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