Skinny Girls

November 26, 2006 on 11:12 am | In Society | | Email This Post

The first thing I notice when I get off the plane when returning to America is how large the people are on average when compared to Japan.

Japanese people are thin. Especially females.

Here is some interesting data collected from the World Health Organization.

This graph has the percentage of underweight females on the Y axis, and the a countries GDP on the X axis. Plotted on the graph are countries from around the world.

You would expect that as the GDP of a country increases, the percentage of underweight women would decrease. Generally this is true, but Japan is an exception.

According to this data, 12.24 percent of Japanese women are under weight, while countries in the same GDP range as Japan, such as Canada, Sweden, the UK, and Australia, are all under 5 percent. On the other end, Pakistan and Bangladesh have low GDP and an extremely high percentage, around 30%, of underweight women.

The definition of “abnormally thin” is when your BMI (Body Mass Index) is less than 18.5%. BMI is a calculation based on body weight and height.

The categories of BMI break down like this.

Starvation: less than 15
Underweight: less than 18.5
Ideal: from 18.5 to 25
Overweight: from 25 to 30
Obese: from 30 to 40
Morbidly Obese: greater than 40

For some more information about BMI in Japan check this graph which shows the BMI of male and female Japanese, broken down by age range and over time.

I don’t know anything about public health, but generally you would imagine that the average BMI would at least be on an upward trend when viewed over a long period of time.

You know, countries get richer, standard of living gets higher, work becomes less physically demanding so people eat better, move less, and get fatter. This holds true when you look at the data for the men (男) in all age categories.

If you look at the data for the women, especially in the 20’s, and 30’s age range you will see a heavy decline in BMI especially since the 1970’s.

Ummm….. Data.

They’re getting skinnier and skinner. The population is decreasing! Japan is gonna disappear!

- Harvey

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  1. Gravatar

    [...] -World Health Organization statistics reveal that here are lots of skinny chicks in Japan. [...]

    Pingback by Japan Probe -Japan News & Culture Blog » Blog Archive » News for November 26, 2006 — November 26, 2006 #

  2. Gravatar

    Yeah. Not just Japan. :( So apparently, since I’m 5′2″, my ideal weight according to certain Taiwanese is 100 lbs. Bleh.

    Comment by Grace — November 26, 2006 #

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    I think this depends a lot on genetic buildup.

    Comment by Vince — November 27, 2006 #

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    Vince, Korea is spelled 韓国 in kanji, you can see it on the graph just above ‘5%’ on the y axis and just above ‘20000′ dollar on the x axis.

    Genetics shouldn’t make up for that much a difference between Koreans and Japanese.

    I would guess that it’s more social than genetic.

    Comment by harvey — November 27, 2006 #

  5. Gravatar

    Yeah, was weird to spend a year being the big huge American woman and then come back to the states and be almost the skinniest woman in my office. I’m not skinny by any means - I’m just not morbidly obese which seems to be more and more the requirement for being an American woman.

    Comment by K — November 27, 2006 #

  6. Gravatar

    Intersting observation harvey!
    Here is my theory:-)
    Working Hard(WH) is inversely proportional to gaining weight(WG) and directly proportional to GDP(GDP).
    So WH=k*(GDP/WH) where is k is karth’s constant :-)
    So for JP, K is a postive value not equal to zero while for other countries is less than 1!! :-))
    So work harder, lose weight, increase your GDP!

    Comment by karthik — November 28, 2006 #

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    Hah! That, my friend. Is hilarious.

    Comment by harvey — November 28, 2006 #

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    Interesting stuff. Thanks!

    Comment by J. — November 29, 2006 #

  9. Gravatar

    [...] Just to keep my link back to Japan though, found some new blogs which I’ll be reading. First up, we have JapanNewbie, which has some pretty interesting Japanese language tuition on Kansai-ben (the Kansai dialect of Japanese from the area around Osaka and Kyoto). There was a story of particular interest, titled “Skinny Girls”. When you come to Japan, you always notice (compared to the UK in my case), how most people are slim and in good shape (some you notice more than others, ahemm …. [ouch!!! virtual slap from Yuko there] ). There are of course a few chubbier people, and the school kids seem to have a higher proportion of chubby people (though, not usually obese). During my time here, it feels like already that the kids have been getting chubbier too. Too many damn McDonalds. So, that story on skinny girls was quite a shock to me. Japan has a huge percentage of underweight girls compared to it’s GDP…. as the graph shows. That’s just crazy! [...]

    Pingback by Ippoippo » Croeso — December 5, 2006 #

  10. Gravatar

    Some people look skinny but they dont look ill. others look ill and skinny and so you can usually tell if this is genetic or an eating disorder. Im 5ft 7 and 7.5 stone but am definately not ill. everyones just different, but there is def pressure from society to be thin and we’re never happy with what we are anyway lets face it!! Get me a cake!!! :)

    Comment by jules cane — December 14, 2006 #

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    Only in the mind of a few beasts of nature are skinny girls out. Really… Skinny girls look a lot better than, using the PC termonology, “Average American Women”. You know what femanazi’s label as average are really repugnant samples of the gene pull. Grant it.. there are some hefty girls that have a pretty smiles and good facial features but at the end of the day they still eclipse out a light source. It is a very disgusting thought to cuddle next to a voluptuous woman and being engulfed in her flappy skin tissue. Now, this doesn’t mean that skinny women needs to be firm and grossly butch-like but just a pich or two of soft silky skin to complement the fine figures that youth and genetics have blessed them with. A lady should look like a classical art work and not a modern blob of coloured paint.

    Most of the women one sees vilifying skinny girls are themselves overweight, uncomely and bitter women. If these accursed women spent half the energy they use-up complaining about the current standard of beauty “as the media instills in the population”, and focus it on a stair master than they too might enjoy the wondering eye of the male species.

    In the end… do not be bitter becuase they are what you were or what you never can be… just find solace in the fact that some men dig fat girls or the voluptous, self-deluding “Average American Woman”.

    Comment by Qiushan — December 23, 2006 #

  12. Gravatar

    Let me counter this argument just a bit.

    I have been in Japan going on 5 years now, and I have to say that while at first the “averagely” skinny Asian figure is attractive, no doubt aided by the fashionable clothes and gobs of makeup, in the end, when all is said and done “full figure”, as in, medium sized “curvy”, physically fit “Western” girls are more attractive to the average guy.

    It’s my opinion that as far as attractiveness goes, there are more “attractive” women running around the large cities of Japan ON AVERAGE. However, when you take a look at the ends of the bell curve, attractive full figured Western women are more attractive than girls in Japan…

    I think this is the kinda argument that will never come to a conclusion, but it’s fun to debate about nevertheless!

    - Harvey

    Comment by harvey — December 23, 2006 #

  13. Gravatar

    “Skinny” = shit. It looks like shit, always, feels like shit, & isn’t “average” it’s horrible & freakish. Women who spit on that are the hotter ones, FAR from “jealous of the anorexic skanks” like jackass males with the brains of a 12 year old think (and the dick size to match).

    Comment by Reality — June 25, 2007 #

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    Wow, I should move to japan. It would be a refreshing change from the “Average American Women”. I swear only about 1 in 500 women I see walking around have a great body. They need to forget about makeup, jewery, and cloths and just exercise. A thin fit body looks better in a pair of old jeans and a tank top then any average bodied women in her expensive cloths and makeup.

    Comment by Mick — August 14, 2007 #

  15. Gravatar

    [...] Daily J: Is there any post in particular that is your favourite, and why? (You’ve been blogging since 2002, right? If you can’t narrow it to one I understand) Harvey: Favorite posts… Yes, as you said, that’s very very tough. One that has brought a lot of traffic is this one comparing female BMI in various countries. Japan sticks out like a sore thumb. http://www.japannewbie.com/2006/11/26/skinny-girls/ [...]

    Pingback by Daily J » Topic » Harvey on housing, travel, and skinny girls - an exclusive interview with JapanNewbie — October 3, 2007 #

  16. Gravatar

    [...] Daily J: Is there any post in particular that is your favourite, and why? (You’ve been blogging since 2002, right? If you can’t narrow it to one I understand) Harvey: Favorite posts… Yes, as you said, that’s very very tough. One that has brought a lot of traffic is this one comparing female BMI in various countries. Japan sticks out like a sore thumb. http://www.japannewbie.com/2006/11/26/skinny-girls/ [...]

    Pingback by Daily J » Topic » TAKE YOUR VITAMINS - past interviews in chewable form — October 24, 2007 #

  17. Gravatar

    The WHO criteria is historically derived from US population statistics which are somewhat lax for overweight people but paradoxically very stringent for underweightness. It reflects a lot of cultural biases on what is considered “NORMAL” by Americans–who have never really been known for being slim. Also, when they originally devised the cut-offs, they simply lopped off the top 15% of the American population at the time and defined that BMI as being fat– with little consideration of the health effects of that cut-off. For most people, a BMI of 19-22 is optimal.

    Currently, a BMI of 24 is considered “normal” weight in America– even though one’s optimal BMI is below 22 (assuming that you have an unusual body composition or are some sort of athelete) and starts to take a downturn for diseases such as diabetes around a BMI of 22. By contrast, a BMI of 17.5 (102 lbs on a 5′4″ frame) is used as one diagnostic criteria for anorexia in the West. Being a skinny girl doesn’t constitute “anorexia”–and cut-offs used should accurately screen people with weight distortion issues from some skinny girl. A significant proportion of SE Asian women would be classified as “anorexic” based on Western-imposed standards.

    BMI of around 18 is quite common in Asia and is does not mean that it is an “unhealthy” weight—As a researcher, I would much, MUCH rather have a BMI of 18 (technically classified as underweight) than 24 (currently classified as normal) from a health standpoint for most chronic diseases (with the exception of osteoporosis).

    In Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore– large percentages of the population are “underweight” but note that these countries also have the longest life expectancies in the world. Most lay people in these countries would consider a BMI of 18.5 as “slim” for a woman (108 lbs on a 5′4″ frame) and 17.5 as somewhat underweight (102 lbs or less) and anything over a BMI of 21.5 would be considered “fat” (125 lbs) and BMI>27.5 would be seen as extremely fat (160 lbs)– (comparable to what Americans would perceive a 220 lbs woman to be).

    One argument that is generally put forth about Asians versus Westerners is that Asian a smaller boned. This argument doesn’t really hold much water.

    One bone mass does not account for the enormous BMI differences between Asians and Westerners– bones account for less than 15% of your body weight, and fat people’s bones will always be grow heavier to support the extra load and shrink when they lose weight. Even so, a ‘large-boned’ woman versus a ’small-boned’ woman, if you were scrape off all their meat and weigh their respectives skeletons, the difference would be less than 10 lbs on a standard 5′4″ woman– assuming that the small-boned woman doesn’t have advanced osteoporosis. Take a look at old photos of Auschwitz survivors, famine victims– there is little visual difference in bone mass between people of similar height. One’s bones shrink with starvation as does one’s musculature.

    I believe that the WHO and the American Dietetic Association should revise their BMI standards to get away from the Western cultural biases. But they won’t because millions of Americans will scream bloody murder. ADA doesn’t want millions of people blaming their self-esteem issues on them. Moreover, they won’t want to have to live up the stringent standards that they set up for themselves.

    If you don’t believe me, try attending a conference of the American Public Health Association– you will note that quite a large percentages of the members have BMI>30 and a noticeable % are morbidly obese (I mean nearly as wide as they are tall). Most of the non-obese people are foreigners.

    Anyway, regarding the graph. The problem with it is that it doesn’t discriminate well between people who are at a BMI, say 18-ish which isn’t much of a health problem versus the % who have a BMI of <15– which is a big health problem (organ failure, infections etc). I suspect that the majority of those Japanese people shown have a BMI from 17-18. From a clinical standpoint, they can stand to gain some weight but are not in danger or having scurvy or beri beri or dying of starvation.

    Comment by vespers — March 3, 2008 #

  18. Gravatar

    Now -that- is a quality comment. Very informative Thanks!!!

    Comment by Harvey — March 3, 2008 #

  19. Gravatar

    I’m sorry vespers, I couldn’t really get what you were trying to say. Could you be a little more specific?

    Comment by Joe — March 3, 2008 #

  20. Gravatar

    [...] writing a post about this entry http://www.japannewbie.com/2006/11/26/skinny-girls/ Stay [...]

    Pingback by http://www.japannewbie.com/2006/11/26/skinny-girls/ — April 3, 2008 #

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