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I don't know if you've noticed, Japan's praise for beauties can be described as extremely exaggerated, almost the same as the level of cultivating immortals, and it is "once in a thousand years" and "once in ten thousand years" at every turn.
Tracing back to the source, Japan's "thousand-year-old beauty" culture began with Kanna Hashimoto, known as the "once-in-a-millennium beautiful girl".
In 2013, 14-year-old Kanna Hashimoto just debuted, because of a set of dancing photos, she was pretty and cute, and she was immediately sought after by Japanese netizens and became popular overnight.
Japan's boastful "once-in-a-millennium beautiful girl" Kanna Hashimoto is a "bucktooth girl"
Since then, the Japanese media have encountered good-looking Japanese beauties again, and they have directly upgraded to "once in 2,000 years", until "once in 10,000 years", "once in 40,000 years" and so on.
Whether these Japanese beauties deserve such praise is not to say, the interesting thing is that at least their teeth do not conform to the aesthetic habits of our Chinese.
Take Kanna Hashimoto as an example, this beauty is indeed sweet and cute when she smiles without showing her teeth.
But as long as we laugh and show our teeth, we will find that she is a very typical "bucktooth girl".
If you look at other "little fairies" in Japan, they all have more or less tooth defects, either with two abrupt tiger teeth, or with crooked teeth and problems such as the sky.
Even in Japanese society as a whole, it is very common for women's teeth to be unsightly, and Japanese people don't seem to care.
It makes people wonder why Japanese women's teeth are not very good-looking.
This is a question that many Westerners are also curious about
Genetic problems
In fact, not only Japanese women have bad teeth, but men also have the same problem, and they are even worse.
Japanese teeth, some are sparse, some are large, some are not straight, in short, people are either frightened or afraid to look at them directly. Speaking of which, this is closely related to Japanese history and customs. In 675 AD, Emperor Tenmu of Japan issued the "Prohibition on Killing" to show his devotion because of his belief in Buddhism, which not only forbade civilians to eat meat, but also nobles to eat vegetables, fish and other non-staple foods. Actually, there was no need to ban it, because it was difficult for Japan to eat meat even if it wanted to. Because the ancient Japanese were not good at raising livestock, the limited number of ploughing cattle could only be used for ploughing, and pigs and sheep were even rarer, so the Japanese at that time mostly used fish as a source of meat. Not to mention eating meat, it's nice to have a full meal.
The Japanese aristocrat Hojo Masa known as "Chazuke Lord" (stills from the TV series)
Because of the long-term low productivity of Japanese society, civilians eat two meals a day.
Until the Edo period (early 17th century to 19th century), commoners were able to eat three meals a day occasionally.
Moreover, the common people could not afford to eat white rice, so they had to substitute it with multigrain bran.
Although the aristocracy was basically guaranteed to eat rice for three meals a day, the only side dishes were miso with soy sauce and pickles made with white radish.
Until 1872, Emperor Tenmu of Japan officially abolished the "prohibition of eating meat" ordinance, which means that within 1200 years, the Japanese people basically did not have any decent meat in their stomachs, and they ate very little rice.
In ancient times, it was not easy for Japanese people to eat meat, and most of them were vegetarians
I haven't eaten meat for thousands of years, who can withstand it?
You should know that meat is rich in nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and protein; In addition to being a carbohydrate, rice is also rich in B vitamins and a variety of trace elements. What's more, bone-in meats such as pork ribs and pig's trotters need to be gnawed, which can stimulate the gums to the greatest extent, so that people can grow neat teeth after tooth replacement.
Therefore, the Japanese body lacks enough nutrients for a long time, which not only leads to short stature, looped legs, but also incomplete development of teeth, which can only be squeezed together to grow, resulting in strange shapes and strange shapes, inherited from generation to generation.
After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government finally realized that there was a problem with the dietary structure, and with reference to the Western food culture, it did improve the height and body shape of the Japanese to a certain extent, but the teeth alone have always been a "historical problem" that cannot be changed. This is because Japanese society has long formed the eating habit of "eating soft rice". To this day, due to the overly refined diet, Japanese people still rarely choose foods that need to be chewed repeatedly, and they do not eat any meat with hard bones.
All kinds of meat sold in Japanese supermarkets are bone-free
It can be said that congenital heredity and acquired dietary habits have never really changed the unsightly condition of Japanese teeth, and there is a special scene of "beautiful women with bad teeth" today.
Japanese people don't have high requirements for aesthetic teeth?
Dental problems caused by eating habits are far more than ugly, the gums are underdeveloped, and the permanent teeth that should grow normally can only be "aggrieved" in the gums, resulting in Japanese people aging and teeth are very easy to loosen and fall out. In the 80s of the last century, the Japanese medical industry compared the dental conditions of Europeans and Americans and Japanese, and found that in the middle-aged and elderly stage, the number of teeth of Europeans and Americans exceeded four times that of Japanese teeth, and they were healthier.
Comparison of oral teeth between Europeans, Americans, and Japanese (1920-1980).
At that time, many Japanese tourists came to China to travel, and the most envious thing was that the Chinese generally had white and neat teeth. No way, the Chinese at that time especially realized that "good teeth, good appetite, good body, good food", is the real "hard" truth.
Chinese eat some meat with bones, not to mention that the meat is gnawed clean, no matter how hard the bones are, they will find a way to bite and eat the bone marrow inside......
Back then, Chinese families ate meat, and they couldn't wait to chew the bones and swallow them
It stands to reason that Japanese society is not unaware of the problems caused by long-term eating of "soft rice" and other problems such as unsightly teeth, but why has it not been able to take measures? In fact, on the one hand, it is due to the deep-rooted influence of food culture, and on the other hand, it is also because each other's teeth are ugly, so there is no need to worry about being looked down upon by anyone.
In Japan, almost all men and women have dental problems
What's more, Japanese celebrities who show up are not worried about their ugly teeth, so why should ordinary people care. Japan is a society that values personal image, and for slightly more formal occasions, there are extremely strict rules about face and clothing. But from the Japanese beauty pageant champions to ordinary Japanese artists, their teeth are really not just a little ugly.
Japan's beauty pageant champion Ayano Yamada, who once represented Japan in the "Miss Earth" competition, has a good image and temperament, but the jagged teeth are a bit disappointing.
The beauty pageant champion Aino Yamada, who was spit out about his ugly teeth
There is also the "Cutest Freshman Freshman" event held in Japan before, which is an important beauty contest in Japan and an important delivery channel for hosts of major TV stations. As a result, the champion Otaki has a huge front tooth, which is really a big disappointment for Japanese netizens.
Oki has a huge front tooth, which disappointed Japanese netizens
These are still beautiful women who represent the image of Japan, and look at Japanese entertainers, both men and women, all have bad teeth.
Yuko Oshima was once an ace member of the AKB48 group in the Japanese entertainment industry, and she was very popular, but her front teeth and tiger teeth directly grabbed the camera.
Yuko Oshima's teeth are too eye-catching
Japanese actors are actually in the same situation, Ryuya Fujiwara, who looks cool, is fine not to open his mouth, and once he laughs, that tooth can be scary.
藤原龙也的牙实在是吓人一跳
For the sake of image, many Japanese artists will eventually choose orthodontics, and from the perspective of the market, they have to consider the "visual experience" of audiences outside Japan. For example, Yui Aragaki who is regarded as a "dream lover" by countless Chinese and Japanese otaku is actually a little girl with crooked teeth in her early years, and through correction, she has her current beautiful appearance.
Aragaki Yui actually had some buckteeth when she was a girl, and some traces can be seen after correction
and Sawajiri Yinglonghua's teeth used to be uneven, and in order to cater to the larger market, they were also quietly corrected.
Eitaka Sawajiri before and after orthodontic treatment
It is important to mention here that tiger teeth are called "Yae Fang" in Japan, which refers to multiple teeth overlapping each other and squeezing the double cuspid teeth to the front. Although many Chinese find it a bit scary for girls to have two tiger teeth, in Japan, "tiger tooth girls" are the real representative of cuteness. Japanese society generally thinks that Japanese girls with tiger teeth are not only cute, but also playful, so many beautiful girl images in anime almost have the setting of small tiger teeth.
The two-dimensional anime is also indispensable to the "tiger tooth beautiful girl"
This makes Japanese girls have a desperate show of tiger teeth, and girls who don't have them will also install "fake tiger teeth" to create cute characters. Having said all this, it may lead us to a misunderstanding that the Japanese do not have high requirements for the aesthetics of their teeth, and naturally they do not care about dental health.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Masks can't hide the truth
How much attention is paid to dental health in Japan, let's take a look at the ratio of dentists in China, the United States and Japan.
The United States has a population of about 330 million and about 200,000 dentists, with an average of 61 dentists per 100,000 people, while China currently has a population of 1.4 billion and about 201,000 dentists, with an average of 14 dentists per 100,000 people. Japan has a population of about 130 million and about 105,000 dentists, with an average of 80 dentists per 100,000 people, which is the world's leading level. Comparatively speaking, the larger the city in Japan, the higher the number and proportion of dentists practising.
In Tokyo, for example, there are 110 dentists per 100,000 population; Fukuoka is followed by 104 dentists per 100,000 population.
It's no exaggeration to say that in many big cities in Japan, there are probably more dentist clinics than supermarkets.
Dental clinics in Tokyo, Japan, with an average of one dental clinic every 500 meters
However, due to the large number of practitioners and fierce competition, Japanese dentists do not earn as much as their American counterparts. The average annual income of dentists in the United States is $150,000-$200,000 per year; The average annual income of dentists in Japan is 60,000-80,000 US dollars/year, which is basically the same as the income of corporate white-collar workers. For Japanese people, the key is to correct the crooked teeth, but to make them white. Japanese people not only go to the dentist's office regularly for dental check-ups, but also go for regular teeth cleaning.
The benefits of scaling are that it removes tartar, effectively prevents periodontal disease, and leaves the tooth surface clean and bright.
In addition, Japanese dentists also perform laser whitening and medical whitening according to the needs of different patients.
A young lady who cleans your teeth at a Japanese dental clinic
Frequent care and the Japanese people's own attention to oral hygiene make most people not only whiter teeth, but also effective in slowing down the loosening of teeth in old age. It must be pointed out that Japanese society does not seem to care about bad teeth on the surface, but whether it is a beauty pageant, the entertainment industry, or the workplace, they are actually very concerned about the beauty of everyone's teeth. In any case, everyone has a love for beauty, and in Japan, everyone still wants to have a straight mouth. The only way to do this is to straighten your teeth. Japanese dentist cosmetology is not cheap, even if it is just ordinary braces, the cost of a full set of orthodontics will not be less than 200,000 yen (about 10,000 yuan). Orthodontic teeth are more expensive, just straighten individual teeth, generally about 100,000-200,000 yen (about 5,000-10,000 yuan); If you have serious dental problems, the cost will rise to 500,000-600,000 yen (about 25,000-30,000 yuan), and if you are more expensive, it may directly cost one million yen (about 50,000 yuan).
Many Japanese artists only have the money to straighten their teeth at their own expense after they become famous
This money is all self-financed, which is a large amount of money for many young Japanese people who are just starting out in society, and they will wait until they have more income unless necessary.
Therefore, the reason why Japanese girls' teeth are not good-looking is that dentistry is expensive and the average family cannot afford it.
It can also be regarded as a "poor disease" in disguise.
In Japan, there is an unspoken rule for looking at people, depending on a girl's family background, just look at her teeth and legs, if her teeth are good-looking and white, she must be rich, and she must be from a beautiful family.
The girl's house with lap legs must be a dilapidated Japanese room, always kneeling, and the leg muscles are developed, so there is no money; Those with good-looking legs must live in a villa, and they grew up in a Western-style family.
As for the older Japanese, this fee is unnecessary, and both families and children need to spend money, so why bother.
Between looking good and spending money, the best option for Japanese people is to wear a mask.
A mask may cover unsightly teeth, but it can never hide the truth
In spring, summer, autumn and winter, the streets of Japan are full of people wearing masks, seemingly for personal protection, and it is important to cover their teeth that are unsightly. This may be the method that some Japanese people will take, intentionally or unintentionally.
※ The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Nippon Street.
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