TOKYO — In the West, a somewhat condescending verdict on Japanese women has long been that they are too submissive and doll-like. For close to a decade, the Japanese media have exhorted women to fight against this image by toughening up and coming into their own.

In the past year, however, that kind of talk has been increasingly fallen on deaf ears among some young women who actually aspire to look like dolls.

They are divided into two distinct genres: the increasingly popular “Mori,” or forest, girls, and the “Ageha,” or swallowtail butterfly, girls. The forest girls wear layers of thin cottony dresses, thick tights and boots, unpretentious makeup and cloth tote bags, the intention being to resemble a handmade doll from some romantic, Black Forest setting.

Forest girls unobtrusively made their debut in the Tokyo pop culture scene last spring, although at first it was hard to distinguish them from the similarly clad eco girls. But as the months went by the differences became clearer. Forest girls want to be discreet and to obliterate sexuality altogether, while eco girls are natural, sporty types who back solid environmental policies and a healthy dose of sensuality.