Japanese weight

hello everyone!

i have a question about japanese woman's weight.

so i am a mixed girl 3/4 caucasian and 1/4 japanese.

i'll be visiting japan this summer to see my japanese friend, while she was in the us as an exchange student she weighed 110lbs at height 5'3'' ... and gained up to 125 while being in the usa .. and said she would be SOO FAT when she gets back to japan, but she looked fine!

now my question is what will my weight be viewed as in japan?


i'm 5'0'' .. 100lbs .. in america i'm really tiny and petite, and i personally think i am too. i am a size 0 in pants and xsmall/small top in usa sizes ... my doctor even told me i could gain 5 or so lbs.

now what would i be in japan?

You will find that height-wise you are on the small side even for Japan- the average height is a few inches taller. What you might find, unless your Japanese quarter has given you your body shape, is that you are a different shape to most Japanese girls, who generally tend to have smaller breasts and hips than Caucasians for example, although there are many different shapes here.

I think you would be about average weight for your height in Japan.

We tend to be quite critical of ourselves and I think your friend was being a bit dramatic, as we can all be at times. I am quite slim (5'9" and about 125 pounds) but if I put on a few pounds over Christmas and notice that my jeans feel a bit tight I might moan about being "fat" but I know I'm not overweight.

That said, there is quite a strong emphasis on being thin in Japan that some girls carry to extremes. 50 kilos (about 108 pounds) is seen be some people as a kind of "limit" here which you should never go over. This doesn't apply to Japanese girls as tall as me of course (there are some), but the average girl of about 5'3" or so thinks she should weigh less than 50 kilos.

well i am not gifted in the breat department either ... my japanese friend actually had a size B34 .. and I'm A32 ... hehehe i don't care though, at least men won't look at my boobs! ^^ .. and hips .. i have just normal ones i think, not non existant, but not large or even medium [thank god] ...

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i think girls are WAY to critical about weight, but its hard not to be w/ the media. all my friends are bigger than me but they're ''average'' in america and if i say i wanna go to the gym [which i do 2 times a week] they say ''omg kate are u anorexic'' .. erm sorry if i wanna get toned! haha.

108 is like nothing, but last year I was 98 lbs and this year I gained 2lbs and am 100 .. and hitting the 3 digit line was hard on me for some reason, even tho 2lbs is like nothing, haha. & i gained that because i came off birth control. [might go back on] ... so yeah ....

i think i asked this question because i am so used to being the skinny one, and i kindda enjoy it .. [really trying not to sound concieded!] .. so i think it would be hard on me if i were ''fat'' in japan.

:P

You're definitely not going to be considered fat in Japan, you'll be about average. The Japanese do have different standards of fat because of their body shape, but it sounds like you are about the size of Japanese girls (if a little on the short side), so don't worry! You should be able to buy clothes and fit in just fine.

And don't whine to other western women here that you feel fat- those of us who don't weigh 100 lbs have enough problems with people thinking we're huge! ^_-

Me again, but I don't think you'll feel that big in Japan. Most shorter people are pleased that for once they can feel tall when they come here!

I feel very big here, and then when I go back to my home country I realise that I am not even especially tall, let alone large.

Really this is not something that should be occupying your thoughts for too long- there are much worse situations in the world than to feel a bit bit bigger than you are used to feeling, especially if you are as petite as you are. Keep things in perspective.

thank you sira and kate. i don't mind being average in japan just not ... big haha. because i the us i am really small, and i do think i am a good weight so being normal would be fine with me.

in NYC i went to a japanese mall that has onyl japanese imported clothing ... a lot og japanese fobs shop there. in the shop i was a small .. which was good, i am pretty sure the clothing was directly from japan so i think i am a small in japan, which would make sense since they said that you are 1 size larger in japan than you are in the states ... and i am x-small in the states.

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i wonder what people who wear large do .. since do they make x-large in japan? since i have an x-large friend [us sizes] and she asked for a shirt from japan, i think i would not know what to do if i could not find her a shirt she could fit in.

Stretchy shirts in a large size shouldn't be a problem for your friend, neither should t-shirts. Some t-shirt chains like Starvations (a brand in particular foreigners like, because they have strange english XD) carry up to xxl!

For other clothes it's weird because Japan doesn't seem to have universal sizing. Some things are marked s-m-l, some give the bust/waist/hip measurements, some have sizes like Americans would think of (6, 8, 10 etc). Know your measurments in cm before you shop!

For the record, I am a 4/6 US and that's usually a Japanese medium, so I think it is about right that you're one size larger in Japan. But because I am an hourglass shape, not straight like the Japanese women, the clothes rarely look right on me. ^-^;

haha omg .. now i must leran cm .. hmmm but maybe you can tell if something will fit you just from looking? or trying on more than one size? or in japan do you not try things on ? [that'd be bad since sometimes things look nice on the rack but not on you or vice versa] .. since i kind of plan on buying some shirts in japan, no jeans or something since i heard they are $$$ so i'll buy some shorts and stuff in usa before i go [i own like no short :P] ..

that's so weird w/ the measurements thing .. i am just used to like .. 00, 0, 1, 3, 5 ect ect .. haha.

Most stores will let you try on clothes, but some brand shops and boutiques won't let you try on anything that can be pulled over the head, for fear of getting makeup on it. Others might give you a face mask to protect the garments, which you might think it weird but I've had it happen. XD You can sometimes tell if things will fit you by looking, but it's hard to tell if the cut will look okay (but the closer you are to a Japanese shape, the more likely it will be that you will look okay in it).

well i think i'll be okay. i mean my body type is petite which i think most japanese girls are. small hips/breasts ... so tops/pants shouldn't be a problem ... in america sometimes girls jab because i have small breasts saying i am a little girl not a woman ... but whatever :P

i remember when i was with my ex i used to say i am so small and stuff and he said i was the normal size of a korean girl .. soo ... :P

so do any of you girls have myspace's ?? ... lol. You guys seem nice.

no need to worry..just returned from japan yesterday and saw loads of fat japanese (fat by european standards). the more south you go the fatter they are.
Kyushu was full of nicely rounded fat people and I don't think due to fast food:)

I agree with Japan having lots of fat people.

But I don't think it has to do with south and north.

Rather, I observe that the proportion of fat people is lowest in the central districts of Japan's leading cities, such as Tokyo and Osaka. And it is highest in the "urbanized countryside", i.e. the regions which are faily urbanized, but are countryside at the same time. A large area of Japan falls into this category. Then, in the really small towns on the remote countryside, I observe the proportion of fat people to drop again.

Some of the US seems like that as well. I didn't see too many overweight people in New York, but in the Mid-west people were much bigger- even the high school kids. Not sure about rural areas.

i live in new england and most people around here are not terribly overweight and a fat teen is very rare as well. i go to NYC a lot as well and it is the same there, I haven't been outside new england except for florida once when i was 12 .. dont remember the people though, lol. i'm 18 now .. so that was a while ago.

I am an American college student living in Japan for the next four years. IM 5'7" and like...160 something pounds? I dunno...pretty big compared to all of you guys. Anyway, I felt really concious of how much bigger I was then the Japanese girls, then I returned back to the US on holiday and remembered that Im normal sized. :P
Many Japanese guys like the bigger frame, especially when its curvy with bigger...erm...assets than the typical japanese woman, so even for you bigger girls...no worries :)
日本へ来てください！いい経験だよ！