Beauty: Japan Style

Small face, long legs, and a tiny, tiny waist. This is how most Japanese women would like to look and how Japanese men want women to look. It’s everywhere from their anime to their ads for beauty products, and oh yeah, did I forget to mention the dyed hair and the huge eyes? There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s perfectly alright to want to look a certain way. But there seems to be an obsession here in Japan with this image of perfection.

In a lot of the anime I watch, the heroines almost always fit this description, making them the perfect women. And while some of the women I know wouldn’t admit to it, they apply cosmetics and go on diets to get this exact look. I have, one time or another, enjoyed praises from other girls that are like “顔が小さくて、足も長くて、いいですね。Kao ga chisakute, ashi mo nagakute, iidesune. Your face is small and your legs are long, good for you…” (Ok, I enjoy it all of the time…) But then sometimes it gets uncomfortable. Like for example, when that’s all they can say. And when that’s all they care about…

It also gets too much when men start to think about things like long legs and slimness… for themselves! It’s not enough that they want their women to be petite and cute, they think they must look petite and cute, too! As proof, take a look at this article from Asian Offbeat. I know that Japan has a long history of these pretty men, these boya or those samurai boytoys from like the Warring States Period (戦国時代, Sengoku Jidai). But from what I gathered, it was usually the strong, powerful men who fancied them and not really the women. Here in Japan, there seems to be some shift occurring where beauty, fashion and obviously physical attraction are concerned.

Image via: JapanFan20 and Mizer.malice (through Asian Offbeat)

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