The Shape of Japanese Women in their 20s is Ideal!

Many scholars have studied the ideal body shape for women. Among them is the survey carried out by Professor. Devendra SINGH, for the University of Texas. He explored men's thoughts on the ideal women's body. He researched which female body shapes men were most attracted to by showing illustrations of women with various waist-to-hip ratios, and three different weights (thin, average and heavy) to men in 16 different world cultures.

It was not the slim women, but the women who had 0.7 waist-to-hip ratio (waist size divided by hip size) that men were most attracted to. In short, men felt that the more beautiful bodies had a thin waist and large hips. They preferred a distinct difference between waist size and hip size. Most of the models in men's magazines and car race models have these proportions.

What about Japanese women's figures? According to a survey result released in April, 2004 by Wacol, a leading underwear manufacture, the average Japanese woman in her 20's has a bust measuring 81.3 cm, waist measuring 64.7 cm and hip measuring 87.6 cm. Their average height is 158 cm and weight is 49.7 kg. As Japanese women are generally short with small busts, their bodies are easily mistaken as "bad shapes," but in fact the waist-to-hip ratio for a Japanese women in her 20s' is 0.738, a result so close to the ideal that it shows a well-proportioned bodyline.

Men are attracted by women with pinched-in waists
A survey carried out by the same company in 12 world cities (Tokyo, New York, Singapore, Manila, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta) on female residents in their 20s, 30s and 40s, showed that Tokyo women were the lightest, but had a well-balanced proportion of bust, waist and hips.

Tokyo women have a tendency to make their weight lighter and their waists narrower. However, most men feel attracted to women who have bigger waist-to-hip ratios, even if they weigh more than slim women who have smaller ratios. In brief, men are attracted to women with pinched-in waists.

The National Nutrition Survey was carried out by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2002. Exploring the self-assessment of body shapes it found that men generally guess their own shapes correctly, but many women believe that they are heavy, despite the fact that they have an average body. Under the heading "Those who want to decrease their weight at present" 37.4 % of men and 53.7 % of women agreed. Among 15 ~ 19 year old women 41.0 % of those with less-than-average weight still wanted to decrease their weight.

It is mostly due to the diet boom that Japanese women's waists have become thin; it is said that the population of Japanese who are dieting is over 10 million. Through diet Japanese women are making efforts to be more beautiful every day.

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