Kayla Beyer (Niigata)
Being anywhere in the world will present you with different standards of how a person’s image and body “should” and/or “shouldn’t” be. Japan is not immune to this and is, like much of the world, slightly influenced by Western beauty standards (1 & 2), standards the global majority do not fit. At least when it comes to presenting diversity within Japan’s media, these standards generally favor skinny, white, able-bodied people (3). Outside of that “diversity,” you’ll generally find a preference for thin, light-skinned people. In the face of these standards that weigh all too heavily on many people, especially women (4), it is easy to get lost within the eyes of others. As any long-term foreign resident of Japan knows, it is very difficult to be “invisible” outside of a major city like Tokyo. If you present differently than the average Japanese person, then you will certainly be noticed
for better or worse (5 & 6). This is something that had bothered me for quite some time after arriving in Japan some two and a half years ago. “Why is everyone glaring at me?” is a question that caused a lot of anxiety when facing the world alone; whether it was grocery shopping, taking public transportation, or just going to the convenience store across the street, I found myself looking down to avoid the eyes of passersby. Mine is not a revolutionary experience—it is shared by many people living in Japan. You may have already heard the proverb,
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