Cosmetic Surgery

Lookism is a term used to describe people's preference of good looking appearance. It is almost always associated with prejudice.

Lookism is probably most popular in Korea, the nearest nation of Japan. However, Lookism exists in every country to certain degree, and it is somewhat strong in Japan as well. Also, beauty in Japan today is deeply associated with Western look. This includes double eyelids, big eyes, sharp and high nose, pale skin, etc. Numerous people dye hair to lighter color and some people even wear color contact lenses to imitate blue eyes.

People do not stop here with eye color and hair color. They go even further to become more beautiful, or become more western looking. Double eyelid surgery is very popular in Japan. Many Asians have single eyelid which makes eyes look smaller. In Japan, bigger eyes with eyelids, which resemble Western look, are popular, and many therefore many people decide to get the eyelid surgery. Double eyelid surgery, however, increases eye size only vertically. There are two other types of eye surgery that increase eye size horizontally. First type is to cut little part of skin between the eyes and suture. Second type is to cut little part of skin outward of eyes. Both surgeries, along with the double eyelid surgery, make the eye size bigger.

Many Japanese, or Asians, have lower nose compared to Western people. Some Japanese people get nose job as well to make it higher and sharper. There are several ways to do this. Simplest one is to inject Botox or filler to increase the volume. More comlicated ways include reconstructing the cartilage inside of the nose and inserting Silicon or other supporting materials. These can make lower noses become sharper and higher, which again resebles sophisticated Western look.

Youth is another catecory of beauty in Japan, or probably in other countries as well. Botox and filler are fast treatment, which can be done in lunch break. These are widely used in Japan to remove wrinkles and give volumes to aged skin. There are more expensive but better means to treat aged skin today. One of them is called Platelet Rich Plasma injection. This is done by colleting patient's blood, centrifuging it to separate collagen and other essential materials, and injecting to the wanted places. PRP injection uses patient's own blood rather than foreign materials, so that it is less likely to cause side effects.

Three main categories of beauty in Japan are thinness, youth, and Western look. To achieve these, many women and even some men decide to take plastic surgery. Is it a good thing or bad thing? Answer is not that simple.