‘In Japanese there are no words for “I’m suffering” or “I’m sad”. I can’t share my feelings with anyone. Needing help is seen as failure, something to be ashamed of.’
Hachiko is 25 years old, 5ft 2in and weighs just over five stone. She is one of a growing number of Japanese women suffering with anorexia nervosa. Her story features in the article ‘Anorexia: The epidemic Japan refuses to face up to’, published in this month’s Marie Claire.
Rates of anoxeria and bulimia in Japan are increasing more rapidly than anywhere else in the world, with one in 100 Japanese women dealing with an eating disorder.
In fact, women in Japan are consuming fewer calories than they did in the Second World War. A third of the population of Japan has a Body Mass Index of less than 18.5, considered in Japan to be the lowest healthy weight.
But it is not the statistics in the article that really resonate. It is the palpable sense of frustration and abandonment that comes from the article’s central focus: Hachiko. Reporter Georgia Hanias meets the young woman in a cafe and is ‘aware of people staring at her emaciated legs’.
Despite the side-long glances, this is an issue no one seems willing to face up to.
‘Doctors just make polite conversation with me, asking me how I am and how my day has been. I’ve come to accept that is it up to me to find a solution to my problem,’ said Hachiko, explaining the lack of medical facilities designed to deal with the growing epidemic.
The waiting list to see an eating disorders specialist is seven years. For some, seven years of starvation means they never make it to their appointment.
Dr Hiroyuki Suematsu, a professor of clinical psychology explains a culture of privacy and stoicism has le d to an inability to confront the rise of eating disorders.
‘From a young age, we are discouraged from discussing personal problems or sharing our true feelings. Here, society is brought up to always give people the impression everything is fine,’ he told Hanias.
And yet, as well as hiding the problem, culture also plays a role in creating a context where being thin is prized. The article explores the Japanese phenomenon of ‘kawaii’, meaning cute, a bizarre mix of highly sexualised, pre-pubescent imagery. Dolls, cartoons and pop stars all radiate the message that thin is beautiful.
The article is a fascinating insight into an issue that appears, paradoxically, all pervasive and yet unseen in Japanese culture.
However, the article does not touch on death rates in Japan. We are told that in the UK 5% of anorexia cases will be fatal, but there is no mention of whether Japan is recording deaths caused by eating disorders. With women in Japan living longer than anywhere else in the world it would be interesting to know how far the effects of eating disorders go. There is also no mention of men suffering with eating disorders in Japan. This is surely not an issue confined to one gender.
Marie Claire is no longer published in Japan, although a Japanese version of their website is available. Given the focus on a lack of dialogue and debate, it would be interesting to know if the article was published elsewhere in the country, and the impact it had.
Then there is the, oft quoted, jarring nature of seeing articles about women’s health, and particularly about eating disorders on the glossy pages of fashion magazines, sandwiched as they are between photographs of stick-thin models, diet tips and ads for cosmetic surgery. (Although, to give these magazines their credit, last Friday Vogue signed a pact pledging a ‘healthier approach to body image’ in the photographs they publish.)
Nonetheless, this is exactly the market the piece is intended for. The article does not shy away from the key importance marketing and the media has on perceptions of body image in Japan. Indeed, by exploring the issue of eating disorders through the prism of a different culture the article highlights several similarities in UK culture and allows the reader to critique the pressures of our own environment.
Read the full article in this month’s Marie Claire magazine.
For information and help with eating disorders click here.
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Editor’s note: The author of the Marie Claire article is the editor’s wife. He asked the Deputy Editor to oversee the publication of this article.
May 8th, 2012 at 11:38 pm (#)
First sentence is complete BS. There are several words for both of those concepts.
(Editor’s comments: It was probably meant to be metaphorical, spoken by a very sick woman. But thank you for your understanding.)
May 9th, 2012 at 3:46 am (#)
I live and work in Japan, and as a recent college grad I am in the same age bracket as Hachiko and other young Japanese women. I am also a high school teacher, so I am around teenage girls all the time and get to know what singers, models, etc. that they like. I read a lot of fashion magazines and there is not a single one that doesn’t have multiple adverts for diet pills featuring models that, according to the product’s claims, went from a “fat” 48kg (about 109lbs) to a more “appropriate” 42kg (about 92.5lbs). Of course, they’re just ads in the very back of the magazine, but they are disturbing nonetheless. I think my biggest shock was when I flipped through a magazine aimed at high school and college -aged girls and saw a feature on the magazine’s models’ dieting campaigns. It showed their before pictures – girls all dressed in bikinis with comments written in the side margin about how fat this model’s stomach was or how chubby this one’s legs are, and also listed their weights and measurements. The girls then went on a two week diet, the end results shown in triumphant after pictures. Seems like a normal dieting article except that none of the models were over 48 kilos. Indeed, the labeled as having a fat stomach was only 44 kilos. I know their height also has to be taken into account, but another model was listed as going down to 36 kilos and she’s only 151cm (about 4ft 10in). That puts her well into the underweight category of BMIs, and this kind of stuff is being glorified in a magazine! I find it really disturbing when models and tv personalities are praised for being too thin, but noone ever talks about how someone might be too thin. I hope national health organizations and news outlets can bring more light to the issue.
May 9th, 2012 at 7:19 am (#)
Is there a link to the Marie Claire article, or is it only in print?
(Ed’s comment: Only in print at the moment).
May 9th, 2012 at 11:08 pm (#)
Thank you for this article. I do worry about some of the women here in Japan. My wife once pointed to a lady who was so thin that her legs swelled at her knees and said she was envious. She was surprised when I said the girl was too thin and therefore unattractive to me. My wife was healthy and typically thin for a Japanese. So, there is a problem with the image of what some women here think is attractive.
And reinforcing what nerefir said here earlier, even though it is in single quotes, the first paragraph is still misleading. I too thought Marie Claire’s writer believes there are no words for “sad” or “suffering” in Japanese. Please clarify this better.
(Editor’s note: Perhaps you are taking the quote too literally? I took it to read as a statement of longing – that she wants to articulate the concept of sadness or suffering. As she was speaking Japanese at the time she clearly was able to say both the words’sad’ and ‘suffering’ in order to say the statement. What I think she meant was that she felt unable to articulate her sadness and suffering. After all the journalist was quoting from somebody with a major mental health problem – and as such perhaps it would be best viewed through that prism.)
May 10th, 2012 at 3:32 am (#)
I cannot speculate on the cultural pressure for “thinness” in Japan specifically, however, having lived with an eating disorder for almost 20 years (I will be 34 at the end of this year) I can say that my condition of anorexia never had anything to do with models, fashion or media.
I believe the development of anorexia (and other eating disorders) is a neurological problem, compounded by environment. My periods of severe anorexia (I have had many periods of health as well as relapse) have been triggered by pressure to perform and succeed, the invalidation of feelings and the encouragement not to have any at all and the need to control a set of circumstances when everything else seems out of my hands.
My psychologist has indicated that the desire to look like a model or the effects of the media “cause” (I use that word loosely because I don’t believe anything can make you get an eating disorder if not already biologically predisposed) eating disorders in only less than 5% of cases of anorexia.
If what Hachiko says is true, and from what I’ve heard about Japanese culture, there are huge pressures for people to contain their feelings (anorexia is excellent at achieving this outcome) not to mention the pressure regarding academic performance etc. Being surrounded by images of thin doesn’t help, but it’s rarely the cause. We need to look at other societal and familial pressures in order to adequately treat this issue. Denial of the problem certainly doesn’t help (and is often encouragement – I.e. If my doctor doesn’t think I’m sick or that anything is wrong I must be fine) but the root cause needs to be treated in individual cases. Weight loss and the desire to lose weight is a symptom, not the problem.
And it’s the problem that needs treating.
May 10th, 2012 at 3:43 am (#)
This article is somewhat misleading. Japan actually has more pscyhiatric hospital beds per capita than any country on earth. But mental health care in the country does emphasize hospitalization, which perhaps makes it more daunting.
However, there are plenty of places that can help women like Hachiko (surely there could have been a nicer psuedonym to use than the name of a dog, regardless of how positive it may seem). A major problem is that the onus of seeking treatment is on the afflicted individual, which is always a major stumbling point in treating mental illness as self-awareness is often not forthcoming.
(Editor’s note: First, this is a review not an article. Second, from speaking to the author there is significant evidence to contradict what you state here. Senior psychiatrists and published papers attest to the fact that there are very long waiting lists. Can you please supply your evidence for your statement that Japan has more psychiatric hospital beds per capita than any country on earth?)
May 10th, 2012 at 6:11 am (#)
As a young woman who has experience in both the West but now living in Japan, I can attest that being thin is above all else the most important thing here-and NO ONE talks about it. When someone said to me “I used to be fat when I swam..it gave me big thighs” in all seriousness, I was first introduced to that culture shock. For every woman who eats cakes every day, there are others who don’t eat at all.
The magazines, like the above poster mentioned, are absolutely horrendous. I actually snapped a photo of a fashion mag that announced on it’s cover “this issue contains photos of hollywood celebrities to inspire you to stay thin!” Thinspo advertised on a magazine cover!
And then there is the whole other bag of worms… how prepubescent girl-types are what’s the most desirable in trends now (the women of AKB48 et al).
I for one desperately want to read the Marie Claire article.
May 10th, 2012 at 11:15 am (#)
Tokyo English Life Line’s review of psychiatric care in Japan on the US Embassy in Tokyo’s website is very informative.
http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-psychadmissions.html