'Bihaku': White is beautiful

[Taro Toporific]

[Buraku]

who is the J-granny with the painted white face ?

http://safe-techno.com/voice/img/voice-obasan.gif

Does she try to sell stuff on the TV ?

[amdg]

That's Suzuki Sonoko

http://www.sonoko.co.jp/company/sonoko.html

[Mulboyne]

Sonoko Suzuki. She died five years ago. If alive today, she would be 492 years old.

Suzuki has attracted much attention as the center of the Japanese "whitening boom"

[Buraku]

cool, so now she's immortal

[Socratesabroad]

The ball gown gloves and old-fashioned bank teller sleeves are pretty common here in China, especially in the summertime - they're donned by women cab drivers, women riding motorized bikes, and the like. I don't think, however, that the point is to stay 'white,' if you will.
Rather, a dark tan with leathery skin marks you as a laborer, and given the striking disparity between regular city folk and the rural masses (educational level, skills, economic power, etc.) I can see the point of not wanting to be categorized as such.

Have yet to see the quasi-medical 'whitening' treatment, though...

[Taro Toporific]

[oyajikun]

Have any of you up in Hachinohe seen a gaijin walking around wearing a cap with 'Bihaku' written in kanji?

[Neo-Rio]

Even in south-east asia they have whole skin care ranges devoted to skin whitening. Most people down there are really dark too. It's weird to see dark women with white makeup on.

[Pencilslave]

Even in south-east asia they have whole skin care ranges devoted to skin whitening. Most people down there are really dark too. It's weird to see dark women with white makeup on.

It's a shame that asian women try all these skin whitening methods, and have cosmetic surgery on their eye folds to make their eyes western
looking. They should learn to accept themselves the way they are, because they're lovely just the way they are.


Sir, why did God paint you? Because Allah loves blessed variety-Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves

[Mels]

[Mulboyne]

PRNewswire: Japan's #1 Medical Cosmetic Company, Dr.Ci:Labo, Introduces Doctor Formulated Skin Care to US

Japan's foremost laser skin specialist, Doctor Yoshinori Shirono, created Aqua-Collagen-Gel in 1999 when he couldn't find medically effective skin treatment products for his patients. The moisturizer proved so popular that he formed a company to produce and market the gel and other medically oriented treatment products, called Dr. Ci:Labo. Their initial product, Aqua-Collagen-Gel has since sold over 4,500,000 jars...In the United States the Dr.Ci:Labo line will be distributed through select specialty and department stores, spa's and luxury hotels and on its web site: http://www.ci-labo-usa.com...Formulated exclusively with natural ingredients, Aqua-Collagen-Gel contains no surfactants, mineral oils, artificial color or fragrance. Japanese women have made the product hugely popular, using it as a 24 hour moisturizer and to replace as many as five varied products including balancing lotion or toner, brightener, anti-ageing, brightening essence and make-up base.

The PR claim is a little misleading. Last time I looked, FANCL was selling more "preservative-free" cosmetics.

[Taro Toporific]

PRNewswire: Japan's #1 Medical Cosmetic Company, Dr.Ci:Labo, Introduces Doctor Formulated Skin Care to US
The PR claim is a little misleading. Last time I looked, FANCL was selling more "preservative-free" cosmetics.

The PR of "Dr.Ci:Labo" is more than "a little misleading" about Aqua-Collagen-Gel.
Dr.Ci:Labo first tried a license "Willard's Water gel" in bad faith and ripped off the product concept and 99% of the formula from the Japanese distributer. The Japanese company http://www.willard.co.jp/ had COMPLETELY repositioned the product from a crappy/quack holistic medicine (see left) to a gr-r-reat skin cream (see right). With massive 0% loans from Japanese banks, Dr.Ci:Labo blew Dr Willard out of the water (and me out my most sucessful consulting job, meh).

[Blah Pete]

All the Asian countries I have been to have the same attitiude; darker skin folks are day laborers and low class, the lighter skin the better(upper class, richer). About the only exception I have found are young rich kids trying to be more western or surfers who really can't prevent it.

[Mulboyne]

Link may "go premium" so the whole article follows:

FT.com: Try a mix of saké and salt
The parasols that dot Japanese streets are not just beautiful fashion accessories - they are meant to shield delicate Japanese skin from the sun. But the Japanese have another trick up their sleeve: saké. Saké may seem an unlikely source for young-looking skin, but in Kobe, where brewing saké is part of the city's heritage, a compound called pitera was accidentally discovered by a monk who, while studying the scientific process of fermentation, noticed that the elderly men who had their hands constantly in the saké brewing mixture had "grandfather's faces, yet the grandson's hands".

The monk took his discovery to a group of scientists who, after five years of development, released the product line SK-II. The flagship product, Facial Treatment Essence, contains over 90 per cent pitera, is referred to as "holy water" by some Japanese women and sells briskly worldwide.

Deborah Lowery, development scientist for SK-II, says that "what is contained within pitera cannot be replicated in labs; it is a combination of vitamins, amino acids, organic acids and minerals and mirrors quite a lot of what skin produces itself".

The zeal with which Japanese women protect themselves from the sun is one reason why, according tothe Cancer Council, certain regions of Japan have the lowest rates of melanoma in the world. But this longstanding aversion to sun didn't start off as a way to avoid melanoma or ageing - it was entirely culturally based: white is the colour of royalty and signifies affluence and social position.

"Pale skin in Japan has been historically associated with royalty, wealth and purity. Brown skin meant that you were from a lower socio-economic status, working manually in the fields and being exposed to the sun," says Lowery. "White skin became revered, which is why geishas paint their faces white, and this tradition is still very much alive in Japan, which explainsthe huge demand for skin-whitening products."

In Asia, especially in India and Japan, "whitening" products are top sellers but are marketed as "brightening" products for sun-crazed European and north Americans. It's a subtle difference in marketing but the products have the same end result, says Kristen Day of cosmetics company Shiseido, which is "to encourage cell turnover and even out pigmentation, which in turn creates radiance".

Exfoliation then, plays a major part in the Japanese skincare regime, and for centuries, one of the most common household products in any Japanese home - rice - was used to lift dirt and oil from skin and to gentlyexfoliate. Cosmetics company Origins has also borrowed from this old trick and used rice enzymes as the basis of its new product, Modern Friction, which promises to replicate the harsh microdermabrasion treatments in the doctor's office with a gentler, more soothing scrub.

Japanese women also used to "brighten" their skin by crushing pears and cranberries unique to the Japanese mountainous areas, and combining them with rice to create a mask for a complexion free of dark spots and uneven tones. Today, in an attempt to carry on that tradition, Shiseido's Bio Performance Cream Whitening Formula is partly formulated from the same mountain fruits.

And what the Dead Sea is to the Middle East, salt mines and onsens are to Japan. Onsens, or mineral-rich hot springs, have long been known for their medicinal healing powers and ease conditions such as eczema, rheumatism and arthritis.

"It is ironic that thenatural phenomenon that makes Japan a geographically volatile and dangerous country - its volcanic activity - is also responsible for one of its most pleasurable cultural practices - that is visiting onsens," says balneo therapist Wendy Mitsch.

In Japan, stressed-out city dwellers' favourite weekend getaway is to head to areas of Japan that have onsens, staying in ryokans or inns, to cleanse and heal the body and the mind.

Intuitively understand-ing the Japanese market, Shiseido created a bathtablet that mimics the onsen experience, since it contains some of the same minerals - and even turns the bath water green. The company's Body Creator Salt Scrub contains the large-grain salts found in the mines of Naruto - used in spas throughout Japan to ease swelling, promote circulation and even kick-start slimming.

[Taro Toporific]

[Taro Toporific]

[baka tono]

Of course white skin is beautiful just look at me.