英文の翻訳をおねがいします。
沖縄について英文で書かれた新聞記事を日本語訳をする
という宿題が出ているのですが自分ではあまり上手に訳せないので
英語が得意な方、翻訳よろしくおねがいします。
NAHA--Most of the men in the Okinawa prefectural government building in early July were dressed in "kariyushi" shirts, Okinawa's take on Hawaii's famous aloha shirt.
They seemed to be almost a uniform. Twenty-five of 33 men passing through the building's lobby and one of 17 women sported the tops.
Some younger employees wore chino pants and sneakers, but the favored combination was resolutely formal: dark suit trousers and a kariyushi shirt.
"I have about five of them, but, honestly, I don't wear them on holidays," one male worker said.
The kariyushi has always had peculiarly close links to officialdom for a tropical shirt.
The government's "Super Cool Biz" campaigns, urging public officials and other workers to dress in less restrictive clothing and reduce reliance on air conditioning, have given a significant boost to its sales, but connections to official policy making go way back to its invention.
The Okinawa shirt, the predecessor of the kariyushi shirt, was created in 1970, two years before the 1972 return of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty. The chair of a local tourism association came up with the idea of promoting tourism in the prefecture by wearing tropical-themed attire similar to the aloha shirts of Hawaii.
At that time, kariyushi shirts were short-sleeved and open-collared, similar to aloha shirts. In 1990, officials solicited names for the shirts and decided to use "kariyushi," which means "joyous" or "good fortune" in the local dialect.
The shirts reached a global audience when they were worn by the heads of states attending the Group of Eight summit held in the prefecture in 2000.
That year, the prefectural government defined what could be called kariyushi clothing, insisting that it had to be manufactured within the prefecture and feature Okinawan designs. "Kariyushi" is now registered as a trademark for commercial use. Each garment comes with a tag that shows the product has been authorized.
But despite the official connections, Kariyushi shirt design is thriving, with young designers striking out in new directions.
Formal designs for funerals are gaining in popularity, and a kariyushi collection was showcased at the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion extravaganza in March this year, with audience members voting for a full-length one-piece kariyushi dress as their favorite item. A kariyushi design contest was held in fiscal 2010 to encourage new thinking.
At Startex fashion in Chatan, Okinawa, a buttoned-collar style with a narrow chest, selling in both short and three-quarter-sleeved designs, is proving popular.
The brand, founded four years ago by Shinjiro Tamaki, aims many of its shirts at office workers. Patterns feature Okinawan motifs such as the mythical, dog-like "shisa," the "gajumaru" banyan tree and the "kanmuri washi" crowned eagle. One shirt, featuring a "kumazemi" cicada pattern, uses a type of fabric used for aloha shirts from the 1980s.
Lequio, a shop in Ginowan city, is also striking out into new territory with its pink, puff-sleeved kariyushi shirts for women, featuring Okinawan sights like the "yanbaru kuina" bird and the "deigo" tree. Men's shirts dyed with Okinawan indigo are also selling well.
The designer of the Papas brand, Taro Aramaki, has released aloha shirts for men and women each summer for the past 25 years. His shirts come in more than 10 colors, with pink, white and red shirts particularly popular. They features a wide variety of motifs going beyond the usual kariyushi subjects, including tropical flowers, fruits, golf, yachting and paragliding.
With office workers across Japan considering whether to go tropical as the mercury rises, Aramaki had one bit of advice. If you are going to wear a kariyushi or aloha shirt in the office, he says, do it with "a light-hearted, easy-going manner."
補足
ご回答いただきありがとうございます。 Refer to はよくmean に近い意味で使われるのを見かけるのでこの場合meanだろうと推測しています。ただ、Longman やOxfordのThesourus をひいても出てきませんのでいまいち確信が持てずに困っています。英語で言い換えると何が近いのでしょう？