RESEARCH – Being very thin, losing weight… remains a women’s obsession in Japan. In the middle of the campaign against the decrease in the birth rate, the Ministry of Health warns. Uncertainty between politics, tradition and social imperatives.
The subject is sensitive. Although many people repeat all day long that they want to lose weight, few Japanese women are willing to talk about it openly. It is those who have left their country for a while who surrender themselves most easily. “I lived in Canada for two years, and when I came back to Japan, I realized how thin women there are,” says Kaori. In Tokyo, I worry more about my figure because others are very thin, and it’s like my brain is programmed that way,” admits the 33-year-old Japanese woman who works in administration and whose normal weight is: according to body mass index (BMI) calculations in the state of thinness; Agreed National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, One in five Japanese women aged 20 to 29 is underweight (BMI less than 18.5), according to the latest results published by the Ministry of Health in 2019.
A share that has grown over the decades…
Source: Le Figaro
