I’m really enjoying all the fun photo applications coming out of Japan recently, and one in particular caught my eye, as it has been Japan’s top ranked iOS photo app for about a week now. It’s called Transform Camera (or in Japanese ‘Henshin Camera‘) and it essentially provides a digital version of those head-in-hole tourist photo stands that you often see while traveling. It provides about 150 disguises to choose from in total, and more are expected to be coming soon.

So far the photo frames include a pirate costume (ala Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean), a French maid outfit, a wide selection of kimono and traditional dress, and even a pair of crossed light sabers just waiting for two pairs of hands to pose with them. Applying the frames is dead simple, as the app comes with some facial recognition tries to position the frame over the person’s face.

Once you’ve taken your photo, you can save it to your camera roll, or then share it to your favorite social network.

Interestingly, eje Inc — the company behind Transform Camera — says it might add location-specific frames in the future. I imagine how this would work is that once you visit a certain area or landmark, then a specific photo decoration would be unlocked. This feature could be a great addition, especially if eje Inc develops a deep repertoire of available frames, corresponding to major landmarks around the world. But we’ll have to wait and see what they come up with.

You can download Transform Camera over on the App Store. While all the descriptive text is in Japanese, the app’s interface is mostly in English and really simple to use.