Consuming “Civilization and Enlightenment” and Modernity: The History of the Modern Beauty Industry in Pre-War Japan

• In Event: Beauty and the East: Embodying Nation, Gender, and Class in Asian Beauty Cultures

Abstract

The 1920s and 1930s were the “golden of age” for the modern beauty industry in pre-war Japan. By the beginning of this era, companies such as Shiseidō and Club Cosmetics established themselves as national brands and services such as aesthetic procedures, including nose-jobs and double-eyelid surgeries gained popularity among the emerging middle-class. This paper traces the historical process of how the products and services offered by the industry became legitimized within Japanese society amidst the cycles of economic boom and busts of the Taishō and early Shōwa periods. Hence, this paper is a social history of the modern Japanese beauty industry focusing on the ideational drivers underlying its growth. Specifically, the pioneers of the beauty industry, including corporate leaders and medical professionals, promoted the reconceptualization of the Japanese body as a “malleable project”- something that could and should be constantly worked on for the sake of advancing individual and collective welfare. These pioneers embedded these values in the variety of products and services they promoted. The urban middle class, in turn, embraced these standards and sought to express and secure their economic, cultural and social capital through the consumption of various products and services. The Japanese beauty industry and the corporeal ideals that it promoted became a legitimate and taken-for-granted aspect of Japanese society as the desires of the urban middle-class and the visions of the entrepreneurs meshed within the mass market.

Author

• Emilie Takayama, Northwestern University