Yep. This kind of cultural reinforcement of unrealistic body standards is why people get body dismorphia. Then they end up in terrible physical shape and frequently in the hospital or dead. Then there's the other extreme where they lift weights and do steroids in an attempt to get the kind of body not even bodybuilders can achieve.
While I do agree that Japan's own cultural issues may have a hand in this, I also think it might have to do with the plot:
Im just speculating here, so I might be wrong but
1) on the wight side I too found it weird that he said she was heavy, cos he is strong, yet in this last chapter the two doctors said she was really light, so it got me thinking that there might have been a situation there, like she was sucking up his energy or some shit like that... (the fact that he was so tired after, also raised my sus)
2) on the plump side, it might have been to hint at her social status, cos yeah she is obviously not overweight, but more to show that she is... “well fed”
But yeah, that's just how I interpreted it
That makes sense. Though I wasn't just referring to cultural issues in Japan. Many countries have this issue.
Well, ofc, all places have their own unrealistic body expectations. But I guess I specified Japan cos, 1) Japan’s body type is very particular to this case, and 2) the original comment was talking about manga, a media that rarely takes into account what's happening outside of Japan
I lived there for 5 years and they called me obese. Back then I was 60 kg and I am 1.61 cm. I wasn't obese for my size. Sure, not thin, but definitely not obese nor above the average.
My colleague at work, fresh out of high school, when they found out she weighted 58 kg and is more or less 1.65 they had asked where she stores so much fat.
I actually once touched this topic in another manga and received lots of backlashes, glad to see someone else sees how this is just nuts.
In Japan you basically have to have almost 0 body fat or else you are fat. You need to be basically anorexic to be considered "Thin".
You basically need to be bellow the healthy weight. Now is starting to change, ever so slowly but it is.
Now women there are starting to
FUCK IT! I AM FAT AND SHUT UP!
Men there are just...
Men there are just disgusting. Of course I am not talking about all of them, it is just that...
Well, when I couldn't work because of a bad car crash and went to ask for the ''poor's salary'' sorry, don't know the word. Anyway, went to the city hall to ask for it.
Know what the guy told me?
"Go pleasure some men instead". Prostitution is illegal, but for as long as is bellow the radar, then...
Anyway, he told me to use my body to pleasure men in exchange for money.
And he wasn't the only one.
And when I called the police because of a stalker since I had arrived there? They did nothing. Called again, they did nothing again, saying '' you are just scared. It was just the wind, woman get scared so easily...''
Then, I was raped.
And you know what they did?
Nothing.
When I see nice guys in manga, from the bottom of my heart, can most honestly say I have never met one in my 5 years there.
Half year working,
4 and a half scrapping for money and dealing with the injuries and insurance company and etc.
I socialised, I did. I honestly did. With japanese men.
And apparently being not anorexic is better if you are just to be a one night stand.
That must be why most japanese women are marrying men from europe or wherever.
Sorry, didn't mean to say this much.
Just hope you don't understand as if I was trying to get money from the government, no. The car crash left me incapable of working by law . Legally speaking I can't work in Japan any longer...and even when I did try, I couldn't stay up on my feet without fainting for more than 1 hour.
Just at least until I got my retirement.
That's why I was after the help from the city hall which every person, foreigner or not, has the right to. Some japanese say that's a lie, that only japanese people can have that, but it is not so.
Unless if each city hall has their own rules, it is most definitively not so.
In all actuality, not only the embassy from my country but others as well as I have searched, confirmed with me that they do that the rights for that benefit.
Which they didn't give it to me and told me to "prostitute" myself instead.
Ever since I have left japan, I do not approach nor talk with men any longer.
It isn't prejudice nor anything like that, it is just...
I don't know.
You need to be skin and bones for them to like you and then cheat on you,
You can be raped and the police will do shit,
You beg for help and they tell you to sell your body.
So, well...
If you plan on going there, it is a nice country.
But to live?
...
Holy Fuck...I knew based on other things that a lot Japanese men are perverts and extremely misogynistic, but I had no idea that it was that bad.
How the hell did those police just get away with not doing their job and denying your claims like that?? Like I get that maybe they did think you were being paranoid, but if you told them that many times they should've at least done an investigation or increased patrols around that area. And you were clearly desperate too since you called them multiple times. They should at least have some amount of empathy, even if they did take an extremely misogynistic view of the situation, and done something to at least alleviate your concerns.
AND THEN the fact that they decided to do nothing after that happened to you?! They do understand that what was done to you is a crime right??? They do know that they are the fucking POLICE, whose job it is to CATCH CRIMINALS and protect public order right????? It's one thing if they launched and investigation and then didn't manage to catch him...but not doing ANYTHING at all??? Do they want that guy to stay on the loose and get their families too??? Do they have ZERO sense of duty???!! Don't get me wrong, the US has it's issues with police, but I don't think there are that many cases where a cop blatantly refuses to do their job to protect public order and catch a rapist. Even extremely misogynistic people have a sense that they need to protect women and children. But, then again, there are a lot of lolicons(pedophiles) in Japan so it's possible that they've even abandoned that last potentially redeeming quality...
I mean I knew that Japan had issues when a studio decided to make an anime adaptation for redo of a healer...But god damn... Do men there see that kind of crime as some kind of a fucking accomplishment????
And also that guy from city hall... That shit would get you arrested for sexual harassment. And it's also clearly a failure on his part as a public servant (which I'm assuming he was since he was working at city hall) that should get him fired. Especially since he's encouraging something blatantly illegal in Japan.
I mean (and this is just trying to find some minuscule shred of logic in these people) maybe it's because you were a foreigner that they took that attitude?? But this level of neglect is still utterly disgusting. I mean I know that the Japanese can be pretty biased when it comes to foreigners, but is it really to this extent?
I've always wanted to visit Japan at some point, but I never knew that there were places where the police and government were so inexcusably incompetent and neglectful of their duties.
Was the city you were in just particularly conservative (and therefore misogynistic), or is that the case with the rest of Japan too? Or how long ago was this? And if you don't mind saying, what city was this so that I make sure to NEVER go there?
At this point I'm just hoping that all of Japan isn't like this, or else I'll just have to give up on any notion of ever going to Japan.
I called the police, my boss, the agency I worked for, I called anyone I know and told them.
Over the past 5 years I told them;
Then the rape happened and they were just like "stuff happens". As if it were nothing. I remember his face, and I do remember one thing as well
He went to visit me in the hospital when I was hospitalised (injury on the head. A real bad one, I turned back into a child). It chills me to know that he knew I had an accident and went to the hospital.
Of course, I only came to know that after the rape happened...
But just for you to see that well dressed, well polished man can be like that as well.
It is my age, foreigner and a woman. I am young, 25. If you are 25, you can work, right? Who is sick when you are 25? That's impossible. All young people are healthy and sturdy.
Yes, he is a civil servant. I imagine he is still there. If at least he was the only one who had told me that, or if at least he wasn't a civil servant...
I don't even know what to think about this.
All I know is that, all of the men in my life back then tried their darn best to turn me into a prostitute. Which didn't work, for my pride is way too big for me to give my virginity like that.
But then someone stole it, so maybe my pride was useless.
It was in Chiba, city was Inzai.
Japan in kind to you if you can work. They stop when you start being a burden. As I was there alone, a young woman there alone, they just merely didn't want such burden.
I have had to hire a lawyer and finally got out of there.
Some people who lives there and got sick complained about the same thing as I, mostly young women. But one Lady said that the accident happened to her husband, and to get the benefit was real easy.
I got in contact with lots of people to understand how deep this was, and it really is misogynist.
Of course I am glad he could get it, but why could a guy whose wife could take care of the finances get it,
When I, who can't work, is under severe medication because there are many scars in my brain now and is all alone can't? Is it because I am not japanese? Or because I am young? Because I am a woman? Because I didn't have sex with you?
It is just unfair.
I arrived at the hospital basically brain dead, the surgeons didn't want to do the surgery because I was alone there, can you believe it? They wanted to let me die.
But my boss signed a few documents stating that she would take all of the blame were I to die and they did it, so here I am. So, in the end, even for saving a life they didn't want to.
I don't know in the US, but at least in brazil, if you arrive in a hospital they will just try to save you. Independently of who you are, why you are there and such.
It's fine to go to visit. But never, and I say NEVER follow any japanese men. Japan is safe, japan has nice things and all, you can walk in the middle of the night there with your baby and all is okay
But NEVER trust a japanese men.
For, when you know it, they have either drugged you or put you in deep debt. This didn't happen to me, but to a few of the fellow people I talked with back then, when I was trying my best to get money to at least eat a rice ball or something.
But to be honest, I do wish my hatred towards them were due to debt and not what had occurred.
I just came back to brazil.
This january will be 6 years.
I arrived in 2016 (when the stalking started), but my accident happened in 2017 and my suffering all the way to december 2020.
The worst about this stalker was,
I changed homes 6 times whilst living there and he always knew
He always knew everything.
And they still did nothing, I told them.
I told them this.
I told them after the rape that he went to the hospital, I tried and tried and tried to tell them,
But no one listened.
Who would listen to a woman, anyway?
So be safe, alright?
Don't go alone.
Seriously thanks for saying all this. If you hadn’t I would’ve had no idea at all. If I do go I’m definitely making sure to go with friends or family so I don’t risk anything. I’ve always been brought up to be cynical towards men because my dad is really protective, but the seriousness never really set in. I also knew that they show a lot of that kind of deceit in anime and manga, but I always thought they just exaggerated it because it’s anime. I guess I know now that it’s not.
I’m also sorry if talking about it brought back painful memories for you, but thank you again for sharing what happened, for me and any other woman that is thinking of going to Japan and reads this.
It's ok.
It's quite relaxing talking about some parts of it because I don't have anyone to talk with (My family abandoned me because I can't work anymore and my surgeon had put a rope around my neck because the brain damage is big. Thus, I came back to live in some Godknow'swhere place alone) and when I do, perhaps because I sound rude in both languages, they say I deserved it.
So, actually, thank you for saying I didn't,
For no one deserves to be raped and be basically put to death.
I just hope that whoever read this can learn anything from it.
Then again.
Thank for sharing your experience.
Now, i will never choose Japanese man again when my family ask me "when will you get married?"
Hope and wish for you, you will find a man that will accept you sincerely and loved you deeply and protect your dignity and pride.
Okay, but I can't get over the fact, that she called the blonde girl "quite plump" and acted like she should be heavy. The girl looks like she will be nothing but a skeleton, if she lost one more gramm of weight. She is skinny, at best.
This is kinda annoying. It's not the first time a manga showed a skinny person, or maybe someone who is just a tad bigger than anorexic, and called them "fat" and even "obese". Hell, one manhwa was based on the fact, that the MC died from obesity before being reborn, and yet she barely had any extra weight. An obese person would be someone like the MC from Leveling Up, By Only Eating!. I'm not saying bullshit like "obese is healthy, obese is normal", but come on, let's not go from one extreme to the other.