In a Structured Maze

Stereotypes such as "Westerners are big eaters who are fat and age quickly" are becoming a thing of the past. If you open Instagram or TikTok, even in local rural landscapes, you will find them overflowing with surprisingly sophisticated and toned young people. They hack the latest wellness knowledge and perfectly produce their own visuals.
However, behind those glittering highlights, the United States is in the midst of intense polarization. One step outside the city, a reality filled with serious obesity and health disparities lies ahead. Just as those living on the beautiful side as models feel a sense of crisis regarding the crumbling physiques of their own generation, the contrast is cruelly vivid.
So, what about Japan?
When we turn our eyes to Japan, we don't see that kind of extreme division or roller-coaster disparity. The nutritional balance of prepared foods on convenience store shelves, daily walking and commuting by train, and the peer pressure of "not wanting to deviate too much from those around you." These act as exquisite barriers, keeping the average body type of the entire nation at a certain level. Japan is like a gentle plateau where large outliers are unlikely to emerge.
However, behind that flat plateau of beauty, another severe structure is hidden.
Global beauty standards—that is, the "standards" presented by fashion and media—have long been designed based on the skeletal structure and three-dimensionality of white people. High noses, deep-set eyes, and long-limbed proportions. As long as we stand on that playing field, no matter how much effort Japanese people put in, the difference in the initial design values is hard to bridge.
Furthermore, Japanese people generally have shorter stature and flatter skeletal structures. That is precisely why, in order to wear Western-style trendy clothes beautifully and create a clean vertical line, being "even thinner and more toned" than Western standards is required as a visual adjustment valve.
In other words, the effort Japanese people put into maintaining their body shape and appearance on a daily basis is not just about a high aesthetic sense. It is the wisdom required to clear the structural handicaps imposed in order to stand beautifully in a "game designed not in our favor".
While white people carry the "advantage" of easily fitting into those standards with little effort, they continue to pay a high maintenance cost along with biological handicaps like UV rays and skin aging. On the other hand, Japanese people offset their skeletal handicaps with daily, careful self-management and a phenomenal raising of the average, maintaining a unique beauty.
It is not a question of which is superior. It is just that the world we live in has its own "blueprints," and everyone is desperately trying to find balance within that framework.
While admiring the glamorous figures of influencers on the other side of the screen, when we suddenly turn our eyes to the well-groomed appearance of people walking in the city, we are made aware of the fascination of this invisible structure and the nobility of the quiet efforts of the people living within it.