White Skin

         Another characteristic of beauty in Japan is having white skin. There are multiple facial products for making sure that you have white skin. These products of course also have UV protection. Recently, Japanese women have had an obsession with white skin. It is ironic considering that in the United States and other European countries, girls spend hundreds of dollars going to tanning booths and buying creams that make you look tanner.  It reminds me of what my mother always said to me when I would complain about my curly hair as a child, “You always want what you can’t have.”

         All three of the products shown in the pictures are skin whitening products for your face. And all three of them have the kanji 美白(bihaku). The first kanji is the kanji for “beautiful” and the second kanji is the kanji for “white”. The fact that those two kanji go together shows the importance of white skin for Japanese beauty. The last product is even called “Grace Sophina” a western name. This relates back to the fact that most Japanese beauty products, similar to the ones shown in the previous post are made to make Japanese women look more western. The biggest irony is that the natural Japanese beauty is considered to be more beautiful to people in the west.

"Small Face"

Japanese girls are obsessed with having “small” or more western-looking faces. I constantly get compliments from my Japanese female friends that I have a small face. At first I was confused as to whether or not it was a good thing to have a small face, but after seeing all of the products on the market to help Japanese girls have a small face, I see that it is indeed considered to be a good thing. The first picture is a mouthpiece that is supposed to make your face look smaller. Notice that the model used on the packaging is a Caucasian female. The next two pictures are of face rollers. The first one is for your nose line and the second one is for your cheeks. The thought process behind these is that the motion from the roller will cause your blood to run, making you lose weight in your face. Notice again that while the model using the product is Japanese, the main picture is of a Caucasian female. Unfortunately, no matter how many times that girl uses the face roller, she isn’t going to look like the Caucasian model. That is what I call false advertisement. The final picture is not pretty at all. I have never tried this product but I am almost 100% sure that it is not comfortable. Apparently, if you put this around your face, it will make your face smaller. This shows how badly Japanese girls feel the need to look a certain way, particularly like a white woman due to pressure from the media.

Diets

In Japan, there is a strong connection between skinny and beautiful. These are two pictures of weight-loss products in Japan. The first one is called, “Cute Diet”, implying that if you do this diet, it will make you “cute”. In reality, it might be able to aid you in losing weight, but of course it will not be able to alter the way you look other then that. This shows that in Japan skinny is a huge factor in being “cute”. The next product has an already very skinny girl, saying, “I want to be beautiful.” By western standards, this girl is already skinnier than the average girl. Yet, they are using her on this diet product, saying that she wants to be skinnier in order to become more beautiful. It is kind of sad that Japanese girls, who are already at a healthy weight, feel the need to be skinner due to pressure from the media. When does it stop? Both of these products are utilizing the Japanese woman’s need to be skinny and the strong connection between “skinny” and “cute” in Japan. There are various diet products, despite being a country known for its healthiness and lack of overweight people. Japanese girls spend a lot of money on being “cute”, whether it be from purchasing diet products, clothing, make-up, or even beauty products in general.