From Tokyo, with Love

On

a balmy evening in Tokyo, the city's glamourati are sipping champagne at an outdoor bash promoting Jaguar's new XKR convertible. In glass cages, go-go girls in cat costumes undulate in time to a disco beat. There is an air of anticipation—and it's not for the party's black, 250-km/h centerpiece. Suddenly, amid a mob of paparazzi, two women prance in wearing body-clinging leopard-print dresses. As the crowd shrieks, Kyoko Kano, the elder of the slinky duo, dismisses the dancing girls with a flick of her green contact-lensed eyes. "They're the kittens," she purrs, "and we're the big cats."

On Japan's celebrity circuit, there are no bigger cats than the Kano sisters. Not a day goes by without one of them hogging airtime on a TV variety show, hawking breast-enhancing vitamins in commercials or eclipsing dimmer stars on the gossip pages. But these sisters don't serve aces like the Williamses, headline playbills like the Redgraves or write classics like the Brontës. Their explosive fame could only happen in Japan, where the only job requirement for a tarento, or talent, is showing up in front of a TV camera. Undaunted by a lack of categorical expertise, the sisters, who are now reportedly 38 and 33 (they refuse to confirm their ages), are plotting to conquer the world.

Kyoko and Mika Kano insist they never sought fame. Half sisters (they have the same father), the two former beauty queens say they led glamorous but fairly obscure lives until 1997, globe-trotting as sometime models and owners of a wholesale gem-buying business. Then the upscale women's magazine 25ans profiled them in a feature about luxurious lifestyles. A flood of reader interest led to regular columns showcasing the sisters' beauty-product and fashion picks. An empire dedicated to all things Kano has followed—exercise videos, calendars and coffee-table pictorials, featuring the two preening mostly naked before a soft-focus lens.

Kano merchandise sells like cut-rate Viagra, which may not be surprising—except that 80% of the buyers are women. The sisters look Baywatch but talk Oprah, preaching empowerment and individuality. They also manage themselves, unheard of in a country where stars are remote-controlled by powerful agencies. And at ages when other female stars are packaged as hausfraus, they exude sexuality. At a recent Kano appearance, Sayuri Kosugi, an Internet executive in her 30s, strains to get a glimpse. "They're smart, independent, and they say what they think," she says. "It's like they're of another species."

In Japanese, kano is a homonym for a word meaning possible. But for the average citizen, the sisters embody the impossible—and not just because of their Barbie-doll proportions. They have shirked marriage, preferring to live together, and spend half the year abroad in exotic locales like Monaco and Bermuda. They dress in Ungaro if they dress at all. Kyoko never goes out without her 24-carat diamond ring; Mika has her G-cup bras custom-made (they won't confirm or deny plastic surgery). "To Japanese, we are like animé characters," Kyoko sighs over a five-course dinner in a private room at their favorite Tokyo restaurant. Mika nods. (By Mika's estimate, her older sibling does 90% of the talking.) "We look unreal," Kyoko adds. "We do and say what we please—and we are criticized for it. A country that doesn't allow women that kind of freedom is suffocating for us. We would love to live in, say, Los Angeles."

Hollywood, here they come. The sisters began their campaign for worldwide attention with appearances at this year's Academy Awards, the Grammy and the Cannes film festival. Twentieth Century Fox crowned them "honorary Bond girls" to promote its latest 007 movie in Japan, sparking rumors of roles in a future Bond film. Vanity Fair listed them in its "In & Out" column (Kano sisters "in," Hilton heiresses "out"). The international offers—this month they are filming a TV special in South Korea—have swelled to the point that they have enlisted the aid of International Management Group, which represents, among other top talents, the Williams sisters.

Which raises the question of what exactly the Kanos will do. "We'd like to take our work as lifestyle consultants global," says Kyoko. Mika nods. They're considering a cosmetics line, food products or spas. "We want to create a global brand based on our image and personal tastes," Kyoko says, smiling sweetly. "Like your Martha Stewart." Unrobed.