The Current State of Body Image Perception in Japan5 The Importance of Self-Love Learned in Canada It is a mindset born out of diversity and inclusivity, and one I hope can take root more widely in Japanese society. In this article, I will compare Japan and Canada from the perspective of body image perception and its impact on the mental health of young women. Japan tends to favor an “interdependent construct of self,” where one's identity is closely tied to how others perceive them. This societal model, categorized as “ritualist” or formalist culture, emphasizes conforming to a predefined standard and promotes strong social pressure to fit in. Such cultural tendencies are exacerbated by media influence. With daily exposure to information via social media and advertisements, young people in Japan internalize narrow beauty standards such as “thin, pale, and flawless” as the ideal image of femininity. Even when they intellectually recognize that images are edited, they still compare themselves to those standards and feel inadequate creating a cycle of self-denial that is hard to escape. Hello, everyone. My name is Yume, and I am currently studying mental health and economics in Canada. As I finish my first year here, I have found myself feeling freer and more at ease than I ever did in Japan. Like many others, I often used to worry too much about how I was perceived by those around me. But since coming to Canada, I have noticed a shift—I feel more comfortable being myself. This realization led me to the concept of “independent construal of self,” or the idea of valuing and accepting oneself based on internal criteria, rather than relying on others’ evaluations. According to the Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report (2017), Japan is considered as one of “Ritualists” in terms of their view towards their self-esteem and appearance. The study shows 93% of teenage girls in Japan (Ritualist) said they lacked confidence in their appearance—a figure significantly higher than in any other surveyed country. This result may reflect cultural pressure that equates humility with virtue, as well as Japan’s deep-rooted problem with lookism. In contrast to the “independent self” discussed above, University of Toronto (Canada)Yume KurokawaDifferences in Body Image Perception and Mental Health
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