Let’s just get right to it!
The term for “excessive decoration” has existed since the Yankee culture of the 1980s, but the “decoden” terminology appeared more than 20 years ago, in 1997 when the PHS era happened. PHS (Personal Handyphone System) is a low-powered wireless phone technology developed in Japan and is rather different from other cellular phone technologies. PHS has been deployed in Japan since the mid-1990s.
Times, of course, have changed and the decoden we know (which is also a bit outdated from what it is now) is much different than how it started, which was really more about painting on the phones and adding decals rather than the intricacies we’ve seen with rhinestones and other deco goods. At that time, there was an atmosphere of competing with the dexterity of painting rather than decorating, so the words “art” and “custom” are used rather than the word “decorate”.
When PHS was still the mainstream, people were absorbed into making ringtones by lighting and extending the antenna, improving the signal condition, rather than showing originality with deco. Mobile phones became objects of “decoration” from the time i-mode, EZweb, and J-sky appeared in 1999. With the advent of mobile phones, which made it possible to send and receive e-mails, the popularity and spread of mobile phones accelerated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S70FgiPy2M
Glowing antennas were quickly replaced by custom straps and deco in the form of adding purikura stickers to your phone. From around 1999, painting phones were replaced by the same deco you’d find on manicures and the use of stickers started to increase rapidly, other items suitable for customization started appearing, such as hibiscus flowers to be used as leis became popular. In addition, the appearance of lanyards, neckpieces and the wide variety of straps may have strengthened the sense of accessories for mobile phones.
By this time, the number of cute colors such as pink had increased all at once, and it was fun to decorate various colors according to the color of the flip phone. Since the year 2000, rhinestones, which used to be expensive and hard to come by, ended up becoming more readily available at craft stores and other places, and have quickly become used in mobile phones. From around this time, the act of simply sticking a sticker or applying deco using rhinestones became popular. At the same time, many manuals on how to decorate were also published (デコ電マジックKOBE STYLE being one of them).
The deco trend on phones eventually started dying down the moment that smartphones came into the picture, however people still deco. The trend #abenomask refers to decoing facemasks that PM Abe gave out during the first COVID-19 wave, and digitally, many people will use phone apps to deco their videos and images on social media. Even now, people still deco their household items and as such help keep this Heisei trend alive.
UK Gal Lizzie has picked up on deco and made posts about her journey, including her gets! You can read about them via her decoden tag on her blog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLdYwI6a5o8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-mzElDflxs
Another one of my favorite inspirations in the SNS era is NorCal Gal Darla — she’s a pro at editing videos and images with phone apps like LINE Camera. Watch her video above to learn how!