Translating Beauty or Japanese Girls Must Stop Being Kawaii
After Riyo Mori’s win in the Miss Universe pagent, and our subsequent discussion on Japundit, I became curious about the “behind the scenes” efforts that contributed to Mori’s win. It has been very clear over the past few years that the Japanese delegates have become less “kawaii” and more “fierce” in the manner in which a model and spokeswoman must be to appeal to an international or, ahem, western audience.
So, how did it happen? Take a look at the Miss Universe Japan site, and you’ll see that as an organization, it’s only been around for the past 9 years. That’s because someone finally decided that after 48 years of participating in the pagent, and only producing 1 winner and 3 finalists, drastic measures needed to be taken if Japan was ever going to place. So, the old Miss Japan machine was scrapped, and the new Miss Universe Japan organization was born. And who was placed at the head? One Ines Ligron, a Frenchwoman by birth who has single-handedly refashioned what it means to be beautiful in Japan.
In her own words:
My involvement in the Miss Universe started when I was in Hong Kong representing celebrity models for IMG Models at the end of ‘97. Donald Trump had just bought the Miss Universe trademarks. We have a friend in common in New York, and my name popped out during a conversation. Next, I was asked to implement an even tin Japan within the next 2-months period and to bring a “Miss Japan” to Miss Universe in Hawaii.
And there you go. A French, fashion savvy woman is the reason why the Miss Japans of the recent past look so . . . competitive.
The first groundbreaking Miss Japan was Miyako Miyazaki. (Itallics below are mine.)
Miss Miyazaki is remembered as a benchmark for which all other Miss Japans are compared to. Expound on this.
People know me as a rule breaker which is true, but I must admit that all the noise is not all mine. My delegates represent Japan, a country full of trends. They all have one point in common: fashion. If you walk in the streets of Tokyo, you will be immersed into individual creativity . . . It is not something new, and Miyako projected just that . . . when she competed in Panama. Kurara has lived in France, Spain and New York. She reads Le Monde and USA Today. She buys international women magazines. She projects a complete new image for the Japanese delegates this year, maybe more westernized.“
And that, folks, is where the ninja suit came from. Self-aware marketing. Ines is no dummy. She knows all about the “kick-ass-ninja-fantasy” thing that the west has for the east, and she dressed up her girl, Kurara, accordingly.
She is not, however, trying to make the girls look western. For example, she considers the fact that Miyako Miyazaki did not place higher than she did her own fault, specifically because she did not fully allow Miyazaki to play up her own unique beauty in the gown competition of that year.
I asked her (Miyako) to change her dress to a more conservative Celine gown if she would reach the top 5. She did. Have I done a mistake by telling her to change? I believe I did. Because she looked like everyon else up there in the end, plus she got betrayed gy her “lost-in-translation” translator.
However, on one thing Ligron is clear. Japanese girls must stop being kawaii. (I told you so! You knew this was coming!)
Ligron says Japanese girls are long-legged and slim with beautiful skin and can be very much like a chameleon — their look can change dramatically depending on the make-up and color of their hair. “The quality they need to acquire most of all is self-confidence concerning both their physical beauty and their mind. Articulating their own thoughts, opinions and beliefs is difficult for young women anywhere. But Japanese girls have to stop trying to be kawaii, and be more sensual,” she suggests.
“I ask the girls to sit naked in front of the mirror at home so they can be comfortable with their own sensuality, to feel every part of their body is beautiful. Foreign women have a mirror in their bedroom and bathroom and look at their bodies. In Japan, they don’t look at themselves. There’s no privacy. They dress and undress in confined spaces with no mirror. I tell them: ‘Put some music on and seduce yourself in the mirror.’”
So, how far do you think this will go? Will Japan buy this new aesthetic sense? How do you feel about it? Curious to hear your thoughts.
I like kawaii.. Can’t there be room for both kawaii AND sensual? I just hope at least some kawaii-type girls survive.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:22 pmThank goodness more Japanese women are acting like women instead of girls.
May 31st, 2007 at 2:29 pmI like all that big hair in the first picture though.
May 31st, 2007 at 2:30 pmSo, the old Miss Japan machine was scrapped, and the new Miss Universe Japan organization was born. And who was placed at the head? One Ines Ligron, a Frenchwoman by birth who has single-handedly refashioned what it means to be beautiful in Japan.
This sounds like a sports team, a soccer team, coached by a non-Japanese, to help the team “win” in international circles. Does that make sense? Then the winner is not really “Japanese” anymore. Just meat.
May 31st, 2007 at 2:30 pmedoko: “This sounds like a sports team, a soccer team, coached by a non-Japanese, to help the team “win” in international circles. Does that make sense? Then the winner is not really “Japanese” anymore. Just meat.”
I like the analogy. But I don’t agree with your conclusion. It’s ultimately the players on the field who have to play the game to win or lose. (On the other hand, your analogy is making me hungry.)
In any case, perhaps it’s because I’m a guy, but do members of the general public really care about such events and their outcomes? (Incidentally, I mean no offense by this remark.) I have a feeling that pageants are much like Chinese New Year. For a few days at the beginning of the year, everyone seems to know which animal of the Chinese zodiac is front and center for the current year. For the rest of the year, nobody has a clue or is very much interested (unless you’re bored and reading the paper place mat at a Chinese buffet or your current age is a multiple of twelve).
May 31st, 2007 at 3:08 pm*This* is how I spent my years in Paris - sitting in front of the mirror in my garret apartment, thinking myself sensual into a tizzy and listening to Eartha Kitt, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin doing ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’ and Les Rita Mitsouko.
That damned Ligron woman just gave away the secret of all women in France. May she get bunions and saddlebags, the wench!
May 31st, 2007 at 3:29 pmMarie-san, to be honest I’m not much interested in the strategy of winning in Miss Universe. This competition is to produce a Miss Universe Winner as the fished product, since the women’s beauty sells. And just to be finalists is worth enough for the contenders to become “fine products”.
I find it’s good for the winner to play a roll of goodwill ambassador or something. It’s a kind of dream come true for the winner. And this makes her possible to get some future carrier.
But the beautify contest is different from the audition for fashion model, actress or ballet dancer. I mean the contents of the beauty contest is void and Miss Universe is the one. To make you understand what I am talking about, guess why Mr Universe is not popular.
Sometimes I am really struck by the fact that the bulk of middle aged Japanese women( Obasan ) have lost physical attractions, while most young girls are very attractive. Because Obasan are married and bore children or expired as “products” ?
May 31st, 2007 at 5:37 pm“Sometimes I am really struck by the fact that the bulk of middle aged Japanese women( Obasan ) have lost physical attractions, while most young girls are very attractive. Because Obasan are married and bore children or expired as “products” ?”
My suspicion is that this will change, TofuUnion, at least in the cities. It has in the cities in the states where women have money and think more materially. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing or if it matters. But we keep hearing in the US how “the 40s are the new 30s” and so on and so on and women manage to stay “young” looking. It’ll happen in Japan too . . . where women really do manage to stay young looking!
As for how important this is? Well, not really all that much, I suppose. But it’s kind of interesting from a cultural point of view, that one woman can come along, revamp pagent machinery, produce winners and in doing so, help redefine an aesthetic. That I find sort of fascinating.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:02 pmInteresting debate on cuteness vs sensuality. Similar to cute/feminine male ideals (today) vs rugged masculinity in Japan? The metrosexual trend in the US is basically over, but still alive in Japan (i.e., the Johnny’s-ification of ideal men). Until marketing in Japan changes, I don’t see the cuteness being replaced by sensuality. At least in the US, models used in marketing things tend to be in their 20s and it’s their young adult appeal that sells. In Japan, it’s almost universally teens (and often explicitly school girls). Actually, Koda Kumi seems one of the few recently to be explicitly sensual/sexual and not selling her kawaii-ness. On the other hand, I had the misfortune to see some Morning Musume clips recently and they’ve become younger and much more explicit in selling the lolicon cute sex.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:07 pmBeing in my mid-thirties, I am a bit relieved to see many actively working Japanese actresses looking better as they age into their late twenties and thirties. It seems that as they lose their baby fat, these actresses are finally beginning to look more like women and less like girls. (I’m relieved in the sense that I’m not pining after ever younger “idols” in the pursuit of the fountain of youth.)
May 31st, 2007 at 10:51 pmIncentivos importam
A máquina de fazer Miss… Pelo menos uma já fizeram.
Claudio…
June 1st, 2007 at 3:07 amDoes it really matter that Japan’s delegates in the past didn’t fare so well in front of a panel of mostly elitist judges who think they can dictate what beauty is? Beauty is all subjective anyway. Congratulations to Ms. Riyo Mori, but I don’t think that every prospective Miss Universe should feel that she’s the standard. Every participant should do what they feel is best for themselves.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:42 amOn French TV, I saw a documentary about this French lady and her “creation”. What I saw wasn’t a display of self-confidence, but an orgy of pure arrogance. Basically, she taught her to behave like a snobbish little prick.
No thanks, I prefer the kawaii type.
June 2nd, 2007 at 4:04 amOoh! I would love to have seen this!
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 amThe most disturbing part was when the French lady told the wannabe models how ugly they were and how bad was their taste with cothes. Just like that in front of everyone else just for the sake of making them feel ashamed. Some looked shocked and one was on the verge of crying … welcome to the western world of fashion ahaha
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:10 amHere is the video.
There is also a part when she says, while laughing, that she glued the ears of a J-model with super glue because her ears weren’t close enough to the head.
Nice isn’t it?
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:28 amHaven’t seen the video link provided by vittel, but this lady sounds like a cross between Simon Cowell and the sort of Parisian that deserves to be made fun of. I would love to see Bruno (aka Sacha Baron Cohen) put her in her place.
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:48 am[...] there is a great companion piece to the Riyu Mori victory, which is about the revolution in the Japanese approach to beauty pagents, and the strategy that has vaulted the contestants into the final rounds, and resulted in this [...]
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:06 pmOh, that was interesting, vittel. I thought it was kind of amazing how candid she was in front of the camera, partly, I suspect, because she felt sort of “safe” in her cocoon of French. I thought it was interesting how she told that one girl, “Do you think your hair looks good? Do you really think your clothes are sexy?” And then, she told the pretty girl who thought she was at a Coke audition that she wasn’t smart enough, and that this was too bad.
On the other hand, the woman gets results, and that was what she was hired to do. And obviously, enough girls want to train under her. She also isn’t trying to misrepresent herself–she’s very frank, says what is on her mind and isn’t trying to hide behind some curtain of false niceness. And, all things considered, I respect that. And as for the harsh feedback, I think the hope is that the girls will go home and think about what she said, and the ones who really, really want to compete for the crown will come back. Which is how these showbiz gigs work.
Interesting to read some of the French comments too–points about how she’s lived in Japan for 10 years, but still doesn’t speak Japanese.
Thanks for the link. The video was very interesting.
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:34 pmvittel, that was a great video , thanks. kinda backs up what i said earlier about “meat”…..so the winner this year was just another rack of lamb…..well done!~
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:57 pm[...] Riyo Mori, anyone? Maybe Hiro’s future (er, past) girlfriend is already having an impact. (And on a somewhat related note, I was intrigued to learn that my entire Riyo Mori post is on Ines Ligron’s blog . . .) Share This [...]
August 31st, 2007 at 8:19 am[...] Translating Beauty or Japanese Girls Must Stop Being Kawaii, Marie Mockett’s thoughtful commentary on Riyo Mori’s win in the Miss Universe pagent. [...]
December 31st, 2007 at 6:01 am