Japanese ladies dont wear earrings?

Back from Japan and had a great time! There's a question been niggling at me since I was there.
I noticed that nearly all ladies didn't wear earrings or if they did it was very plan studs.

I am a big fan of BIG / long / fancy earrings so felt a little out of place not seeing many also wearing them.

Is there a reason japanese females are not fond of them at all?

Its not fashionable except with certain cliques. Hostess girls wear them I believe.

I guess very few people in Japan, myself included, considers earrings cute. And being cute is often preferred to being "beautiful", unless one is a hostess.

On the same note, you don't see much navel piercings in Japan either, and that is a huge plus in my opinion (I hate those things).

I think that it's true that fewer Japanese women than their western counterparts have pierced ears; clip on earrings are more common.

It's less true probably for the younger generations and pierced ears and other body parts are definitely becoming more common.

For women say of 40 and upwards, one of the reasons pierced ears are not popular is that traditionally the Japanese have been encouraged to believe that one's body is a precious gift from one's parents and that putting holes into it is Not a Good Thing...

Just to add, big earings will come off very easily unless your ears are pierced. So those who don't have their ears pierced will not and often cannot wear them. And then, as for pierced earings, the trend at the moment are smaller ones. Usually, bigger ones becomes the trend in summer.

But being a Japanese woman, I don't really understand where the OP's idea is coming from. In fact, I think the majority of Japanese women do wear earings, be it either pierced or clip-ons.

But clip-ons hurt if you keep them on for a long time. For this reason, those who don't have their ears pierced tend to wear earings only when they dress up.

On the other hand, a lot of employers (like supermarket cashiers) do not allow their employees to wear pierced earings as many of their older customers may not approve them. For this reason they keep them off while work.

The proper traditional kimono attire for many occasions such as tea ceremonies is that you shouldn't wear accessories. Most schools for teenagers do not allow accessories either.

I rarely see women here wearing earrings either, just as the OP pointed out. Most earrings I've seen have been studs or really small ones. I can't wear those types personally. My ears are too sensitive for them. I can only wear dangly ones or hooked ones.

Interesting cultural difference.

Uco, I dont believe Im exaggerating in the whole week I was people watching, hardly any women wore earrings on the streets of Tokyo. I guess if they're related to being Hostesses I can understand why one might not ^^;

If you compare to women here almost all will wear some form of earrings, its a big difference to what I saw. We tend to accessorise alot and adding earrings make the face or whole outfit seem less plain.

Since I thought japanese girls were extremely well dressed and pretty, not adding any earrings puzzled me a bit. So I wanted to seek out the reason for this difference.

People don't wear earrings to work. They DO wear earrings to play!

I'm curently reading a book that was first published in 1905, it is an account of an English women named Isabella L. Bird who travelled throught japan for six months in 1878!. An excellent insight into the way people lived etc., and in her observations when attending festivals, weddings etc., she notes that the women of Japan do no wear any Jewellery of any description. perhaps there is a 'Shinto Religion' teaching here?...that still holds for today?.

MayMay,

I'm not saying at all that you are exaggerating. On the contrary, I was trying to analyze. And I don't think earings are related to being hostesses (this is the first time I've heard of that idea, again, being a Japanese woman in Japan).

Anyway, earings hurt unless you're pierced, so there's no point in forcing yourself to wear them unless it's a big trend or necessity such as formal occasions.

Firstly, it is true that less Japanese women have their ears pierced than in some other countries, because of the ban in high school against wearing jewelry, and also of the concept of "not damaging your body given by your parents." I nearly stopped wearing any earrings altogether because clips are painful, and I've lost too many screw-back type of earrings.

However, more and more people have gotten their ears pierced lately. Yet (including myself, who got mine pierced at age past 40, despite having lived in the US in teens) I believe that big hoops are (1) considered too "playful" to be worn to work (small studs are considered "modest" and good-mannered, (2) young moms would be scared to wear hoops/chains for fear that their infants might pull at them, and also (3) dangerous if you think about the commuting in packed trains. So you might not see too many people with big hoops on trains/streets.

But in a fashion retail company where I work once in a while, for example, I have seen some women with huge hoops that I couldn't keep looking at :)

...that I couldn't keep looking at :)

I meant to say "I couldn't help staring at :)"

I generally agree with AK, but I can also say that there are countries that have a tradition of piercing their ears (Latin countries, some Asian tribes, African countries etc.) and there are countries that do not have that tradition. For example, I understand that Finland doesn't have the tradition of piercing their ears.

Where it is the norm for women to pierce ears, parents have their daughters' ears pierced from a very young age. If you go to Paris as an adult woman and say that you don't have your ears pierced "yet" they would go "What?!"

On the other hand, where it is not the norm, it is more up to the indivisual to get their ears pierced or not as they grow up.

I went to grade school in L.A. and all my Mexican friends either already had their ears pierced or were having them pierced during their school ages, when they're 9 or 10 years old or so. Then they would have pretty pierce earings on their ears so that they could maintain the holes on their ears. If they forget to put them on from home, they would pick up some dried grass and stick it in their ears while at school.

Even in Japan, I know school girls whose mothers are Filipina, and they would bring a parents' note to school so that they could wear pierced earings to school, which is part of their tradition.

But many of the non-Latin girls, like me who is Japanese or German decendents or Scandinavian decendents didn't have their ears pierced at grade school age. I guess many of these people would simply grow up not doing anything about it. I even knew a Finnish adult fashion model who didn't have her ears pierced, and she would tolerate the pain of clip-ons just so that she could dress up.

Similarly, the Japanese would tolerate the pain when they dress up. For me, it had nothing to do with my work environment. In the 80s when showy earings were a trend, I would wear clip-ons to work, and then clip them on my fingers while pressing the phone against my ears. But in the recent decades the trend has changed, so I just have to keep those 80s earings in the closet.

By the way, I too had my ears pierced for the first time in my 40s (which physically failed and then it took nearly 5 years for new pierces to settle), and I finally had the freedom to wear big earings without having to worry about the pain or about loosing them...so I thought.

I soon found out that I'd still drop them, get them stuck somewhere and get pulled by them and they'd even fall apart. So nowadays, I wear the same ol' tiny ring-shaped ones.

Perhaps the fact that big earings are avoided has something to do with a lot of women having to ride the packed trains every day. Again, if you go to the beach, you will see reggae girls wearing big ones all the time.

I always found appaling that parents would pierce children ears, but is certainly true that in many latin america countries that is very commom - Brazil included, that's where I come from.

I had no idea of that difference, but I believe it makes sense. The 'not damaging your body' culture is also why tatoos are so badly seen in jaan, I guess?? (I mean, besides that being linked to criminals)

My mother pierced mine when I was 4 or 5, but I didnt really think it was a big deal. It seems a bigger step for japanese women to take the step so much that they'd rather tolerate painful clip ons. ( I wasnt even aware clip ons were painful :P you wouldnt find clip ons solld here)

Big long earrings are just not in fashion right now, they would look outdated. Japanese people tend to comply with fashion trend with each other. IF big long earrings become a popular trend, everyone will probably start wearing them. But not now.