Japanese word applied to young women who operate within a certain subculture. The word when translated literally means blackface. These girls, unlike their kogaru counterparts, dress to look like their African American celebrity idols: TLC, Janet Jackson, and Lauryn Hill to name a few.

To complete the look, Ganguro will frequent tanning salons, pay up to four hundred dollars for an afro-perm to curl their terminally straight hair, and smother their faces dark brown foundation makeup. Salon magazine ran an article about Ganguro and claimed that one girl went so far as to color her entire face in brown magic marker.

Although Japanese culture is know for its strict conformity, even traditional office ladies are sometimes seen in full ganguro regalia on the weekends. According to the article magazines such as Egg are aimed exclusively at the ganguro market and hair salons openly advertise, " the newly popular "buraku" (black) or afuro hairstyles... in the cosmetics aisles of mainstream supermarkets, dark beige powders and tanning lotions are now sold alongside the formerly ubiquitous skin-whitening creams and industrial-strength sunscreens."