Hair removal in Japan
This photo is from page 3 of the Tuesday, October 18, 2022 Japan Times print newspaper. A trained technician performs hair removal treatment using an optical machine at an osteopathic clinic in Fukuoka.
In recent years, people have increasingly been having their hair removed not only in visible areas but on the entire body. I personally know a professional Japanese man in his 20s who is having all his facial hair permanently removed because, he says, shaving is “mendokusai,” or tedious. I told him that he looks feminine. He says that other people have said the same.
I know a Japanese woman in her 30s who has paid hundreds of thousands of yen for hair removal treatments to a company in the process of going bankrupt. She did not explain her depilation treatment or reasons, so I can only speculate. But she did describe her consternation at the company’s financial predicament, and the inability of her and many other clients who pre-paid for their treatments to get financial compensation.