After the New Year, about 2nd Monday of January, we have a ceremony for young people who became adults at the age of 20 of the year. At 20 years old, they are allowed to drink alcohol, smoke cigarets, voting the election (the regulation has changed to have voting rights from 18 years old since 2016).
New adults both females and males put on beautiful kimono and hair accessaries (like tsumami zaiku) and they go to the parties or ceremonies held by the local governments.
This event has been around since post World War 2. They used to wear old style kimono but recently, they are more fashioned and modernized.
Kimono which women put on in the coming-age-ceremony is called Furisode. Furisode is worn by young women mostly. Sode means sleeves in Japanese. So Furisode means long sleeves.
As you can see, kimono on the right side, it has shorter sleeves. This kimono is worn by the aged women.
Kimono is not cheap, so some young people can’t afford it. There is a broad range of price. In that way, most people rent a kimono to the company.
Sadly to talk about that, last year, a rental Kimono firm closed down all of sudden right before the date of the ceremony, which was shown anger by many people. Lots of young people lost the chance to celebrate with kimono on that day.
<Reference>
The former head of a now-bankrupt kimono rental firm was sentenced to 30 months in prison Wednesday for swindling banks of funds to keep his business running
Source: Ex-head of bankrupt kimono firm gets 30 months in prison for fraud | The Japan Times
However, this year, 2019, they might have enjoyed their parties and ceremonies with drinking all over the night.
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