Beauty under the umbrella
1 Dec 2008

The ideal of  Japanese female beauty includes white skin: the more white the better. It is not a temporary fashion. It is an ingrained concept established in the Japanese culture. An old Japanese proverb states that “white skin makes up for seven defects”. Brown skin for women is considered to be unclean and, for that reason, the Japanese cosmetic industry gets a great part of its revenue by selling products to preserve or restore the natural paleness of the skin. Practically the only Japanese women who don’t want to have a white skin are the ganguro girls, which are young women who follow the opposite trend since the ’90s; that is to say, they are characterized by having an extremely brown skin, which is often highlighted thanks to chemical products.

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