Trends in Harajuku are constantly changing and evolving, but a trend that’s been taking Harajuku by storm solidly for the past few years are Ita Bags! They’ve even reached J fashion fans abroad! However, for most of the Japanese population if you mentioned the word Ita Bag then they would likely have no idea what you’re talking about. So what exactly are Ita bags?

Ita bag or 痛バッグ in Japanese are bags that are plastered with countless key chains, plushies and accessories of a character, often from an anime or video game. “Ita” using the character for “painful” in Japanese, which supposedly represents the pain making these bags inflicts on the owners wallets as they’re often costly! With a lot of the merchandise for these characters being extremely limited or only available at special events, people will spend $$$ collecting the sheer amount of goods required to fill the bags out!

Fans often make these bags as a way to express their love for their favourite character, with otome game (dating sim game) characters being most commonly seen decorating ita bags. The bags pictured contain characters from popular otome series Uta No Prince Sama! It’s quite common to see otaku or those from the Japanese subculture yamii kawaii carrying these bags in Harajuku or Ikebukuro.

Anyone can make an Ita bag though, all you need is a bag with a clear pocket at the front and to collect some of your favourite goodies! You can even mix and match characters or make an ita bag of Disney Sea character plushies!

Photo source: TokyoFashion

Would you like an ita bag? If so what character would you choose to decorate your bag with? Let us know in the comments!

Keep up to date with all the kawaii news coming straight from Japan by following us on Facebook, Instagramand Twitter!

Want to get a FREE Japanese kawaii subscription box? Check out how to get one here!