I agree, I have been in Japan few times and love to see the diversity in fashion there.

I think a huge group (and the original reason I got interested in Japan) is the [Neo] Visual Kei (ヴィジュアル系) [1] movement. It was a cultural movement both from music and fashion that isn't even mentioned here.

Edit/note: for the more pictures, you surely want to find the fashion "branch", then find the name in Japanese and use that to search them (make sure Google is not limiting your searches as well). That is a part of a culture that mainly uses Japanese IMHO, similar to some parts of robotics that I see IRL but cannot find online.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei

> My uneducated guess was that these pictures represent the "official" and branded street culture.

It represents the prevailing trend of an entire year. Which is to say, what is the most popular. So yeah, its going to trim away the fringe, and that does end up being a lot to cut away.

Seems like it was a slice of fashionable items that a typical person would wear and no one would think was strange/what a lot of people would inspire to dress like.

There are some strange styles you'll see in Tokyo, but people there also think they're kind of strange (less so than in the US) and the wearers are trying to stand out.

I thought it was pretty bland too. Figured there'd be at least one or two rockabilly and heavy metal photos from the 1980s.

> There must be 100s of substyles that are one-offs and produced by individuals.

There are about as many styles as individuals if you go in Harajuku, so not sure if it makes sense to try to classify them at all in the end. It's changing constantly too, and while there are always trends there is a strong chaotic element to it.

these are the kinds of pictorials that cause me to discard the "America is the most creative" narrative i've been hearing all my life.

yes. America is creative. but so is, like, the rest of the world 'n stuff.

America is just kind of whatever plus guns.