In Japan, however, white face paint does not traditionally denote the West. Some Japanese women painted their faces well before the country was forcibly opened to the outside world.

A beauty standard common to both Korean and Japanese beauty, this trend of whitening and infantilizing women has gone so far that it’s what K-beauty and J-beauty are synonymous with today.

Japanese women care about their complexion and put foundation on their faces when they go outside (soto). This article illustrates how the women's white faces serve as a symbolic language, which ...