In America, cosplay began with the first cosplayers dressing as Star Trek characters and aliens at science fiction conventions. Batman and Robin cosplay started to show up at the same conventions with science fiction at these conventions and American science fiction merged with Japanese anime in 1984 to create cosplay.
The founder of an anime study, Takahashi Nobuyuki, went to the Scifi World Convention in Los Angeles ad was impressed with the costumes of Star Trek characters. After returning to Japan, he began to write about the costumes and the convention, encouraging his anime reader to dress in costumes at anime conventions in Japan. He came up with the name Kosupure for these conventions from a Japanese word that means "aristocratic costume party" This was the first time American and Japanese cosplay joined together.
Cosplay in America and Japan are different in a few ways like cosplayers perform live skits for competition while in Japan, it's more for posing as the character. In America, cosplayers wear their costumes at live shows, outside of conventions while in Japan, cosplayers are not welcome outside of conventions. In Japanese culture, the focus is in community values and cosplayers are viewed as individuals.