Light skin in Japanese culture

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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. (September 2014) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Japanese article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,207 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at [[:ja:美白]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ja|美白}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Bihaku (美白, 'beautifully white') is a Japanese term coined in the 1990s with the emergence of skin whitening products and cosmetics.

Although skin tone differs based on a person's racial background, those with fair skin have difficulty maintaining^{[clarification needed]} skin tone due to a lack of melanin production. In Japan, the preference for skin that is white and free of blemishes has been documented since at least the Heian period (794–1185), as in books such as The Pillow Book and The Tale of Genji.^[1] There is an old proverb "white skin covers the seven flaws" (色の白いは七難隠す, iro no shiroi wa shichinan kakusu), which refers to a white-skinned woman being beautiful even if her features are not attractive.^[a]

Following Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan (1895–1945), Taiwanese women were consumers of Japanese skin whitening products in the 20th century. Mainland China has also become a large market for bihaku products from companies like Shiseido, Shu Uemura and SK-II in the 21st century. The South Korean girl group Girls' Generation collaborated with Dior in 2011 to promote their skin lightening cream, targeted consumers influenced by the Korean Wave and potentially increasing their presence in the East Asian cosmetics markets. ^[4]

Bihaku products are highly popular among mature women. They are also popular with teenage girls and those in their twenties who desire to look like pop singers, such as Ayumi Hamasaki, and are promoted in numerous youth fashion magazines such as Popteen and S Cawaii!. Bihaku products are also prevalent and a key item in numerous youth subcultures such as gyaru and ageha girls. An opposition to the idea of fair skin beauty grew with the gyaru subculture called ganguro in the 1990s which later died out by the end of the 2000s.

The popular method of bihaku is to use cosmetics that stop the production of melanin. Traditionally, uguisu no fun was used to lighten skin tone, although today it is considered a luxury item. The most popular beauty products often contain sake and rice bran, which contain kojic acid.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has approved a specific combination of active ingredients for skin whitening cosmetics used by the general Japanese public. These are mainly arbutin and kojic acid.^[4] Other ingredients include vitamin C derivatives and tranexamic acid. Several of these key components function by suppressing the activity of catechol oxidase. VIORIS products, a variation of BB cream, are reputed to possess skin brightening properties, which have significantly bolstered the cream's appeal in the East Asian cosmetics markets.

• Bijin
• Bijinga
• C-Beauty
• K-Beauty
• Skin whitening