Today was a brilliantly sunny 75 degree F day in Kagoshima, Japan. I actually didn’t have to work today, which was a nice break for such a beautiful Saturday. Anyways, I figured I would head down to a large park area that has great patches of grass where people can sit and read, eat lunch, play ball, or whatever. However, when I got to the park, there wasn’t a soul in the sun. ALL the shady areas were packed. It was quite a scene to behold.
As little as two weeks ago, people were enjoying sitting in the sun. Now, suddenly, everyone’s gone crazy with their hats, parasols, and protective clothing. I don’t know why the Japanese people think that the sun suddenly became so much more dangerous in these two weeks… or perhaps it’s that the weather is now an average of five degrees warmer. Who knows.
But anyways, two things came of my experience at the park: first, against my desire to take in a few rays (with my sunscreen, of course), I managed to find an unoccupied shady spot. Second, I started reflecting on how differently this culture reacts to the sun compared to Americans.
In America, there’s no way that huge, beautiful, lushly green park by the sea would have gone without at least a handful of picnickers on a warm, sunny spring Saturday. Here in Japan, most people take sun-protection extremely seriously. They would never dream of tanning, and my students were shocked when I told them people in America don’t usually use umbrellas as a sun-shield. My students are avid users of sunscreen. Many wear hats, and often long sleeves even in the hottest points of summer. How often in the states would you see an 18-year-old doing everything she could to NOT get a tan? And it’s not all about fashion, either. My students simply are worried about the health risks of getting too much sunlight. Somewhere along the line, kids here got some pretty decent education about the risks of too much sunlight. It's good to see, really.
I think some people in the US need to take some tips from Japan. The sun’s great, but can easily be too much of a good thing.
I can't speak for Japanese people, but I imagine that they highly value pale skin for other reasons like Chinese people do. Pale skin is just simply more beautiful and desirable to many Chinese. There's a stigma to darker skin as well involving those who live in the countryside and farm as well. Well educated and rich folk have whiter skin. Stores in China even carry all sorts of skin bleaching masks for women as well. So, I don't think its just about sun damage...
www.progressiveu.org/blog/americangirlinchina