What would Japanese women like to change about their own bodies in terms of height and weight?
Earlier this week, we introduced you to a street interview video by YouTube channel Ask Japanese, where Japanese men were asked to describe their ideal female body type. Most of the guys in the video expressed a preference for small and slender women, with only a few of them saying that they like ladies with fuller figures.
▼ Like this fine fellow here.
The high importance placed upon female slimness in Japan doesn’t all come from male pressure, though. Japanese women themselves seem to really like the ultra-slim look, and there’s a huge diet industry which sets its sights firmly on Japanese women. So we were curious to know what everyday Japanese women would change about themselves to achieve their ideal body.
YouTube channel Ask Japanese conducted a street interview similar to the previous one, this time polling women on their ideal body type and the things they’d like to change about their appearance if they could.
Ready to feel just a little bummed out? Check out the video below!
Many of the women polled had seemingly unrealistic ideals for weight, with many listing ideal weights well below 100 pounds and far into the “underweight” range on the BMI scale.
▼ In fact, the “magic” number just keeps getting lower:
▼ Many of the women also expressed a wish to be shorter out of a belief that “smaller is better”, and “smaller is kawaii”.
The results no doubt help to confirm the fact that Japanese women prize very low body weight as a sign of beauty, but they seem to be a bit more divided on height. While there was a general preference for shortness, some of the interviewees expressed a desire to be a little taller, for reasons both pragmatic (to avoid being smothered on the train) and cosmetic (to appear thinner, and to make weight-gain less obvious).
▼ Personally, I think it would be great if more people could be like the girl below!
Do you think these girls’ ideals are realistic? What did you think of their responses overall?
Source: YouTube – Ask Japanese
Screenshots via YouTube – Ask Japanese
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