Changing Mores 2

On the heels of the other somewhat debated “Changing Mores” post, here is another photo for you Japanophiles to digest.

makeup.JPG

Now, I’m really, really sure that this is the kind of thing you rarely would have seen twenty years ago. And if I’m wrong, I know Ed will tell me (and so will all of you).

11 Responses to “Changing Mores 2”

RYO Said:

Let me guess again. Nobody cared about overly long nose hair two decades ago?

go55man Said:

Look what I found! And on Japundit!

http://japundit.com/archives/2005/04/28/560/

Marie Mockett Said:

Gold stars for both of you. ;-)

Edward Chmura Said:

Say, Marie, what is the status of this type of thing in the U.S.?

Do women to their makeup on the subways of New York?

For that matter, do women in the U.S. still wear makeup?

Marie Mockett Said:

Makeup is still big business here, probably bigger and better than ever. ;-) Last year I took some Hard Candy makeup to my cousin to give to his friend, a makeup artist. She put in a request for even more stuff the next time I came to town, and I happily obliged after a visit to Sephora.

As for makeup on the subway and in public; you see it, but it’s sort of a weird thing to do in public. And, frankly, it is younger women who do it on the way to work or, in NYC, on the way to an audition.

RogerThePunk Said:

I was in Japan (as a resident) from ‘79 to ‘90…. So, twenty years ago. And yes, I did young women applying their makeup in public from time to time. It wasn’t all that common, but it did happen.

overoften Said:

Goodness, Roger. Didn’t you even give them any warning? How terribly ungentlemanly.

RTN Said:

Read the old newspapers from the 60s and you’ll soon see attempts to teach Japanese what the proper etiquette is for driving (especially on the new highway system), parking, riding subways, etc. If you talk to people around 50 years old or so, they’ll tell you stories that make it clear things weren’t so polite in the ‘good old days.’ I think there might have been a short golden age of manners just before the bubble broke that gives a false impression of what things used to be like.

Of course, it also matters where you are. I see more eating on rural trains (distance/time related?) and more makeup getting done on the urban trains.

Marie Mockett Said:

It’s a good point. The other day my mother was telling me about men who used to sleep in their undershirts on the train floor (in the aisle).

dickvickers Said:

Oh my, I had a good laugh at what overoften said. Things must really have changed in Japan recently if that sort of spectacle occurred in public just twenty years ago.

Do It in Private Said:

[...] found these signs, all over the Ginza subway line in Tokyo, to be interesting in light of earlier and somewhat debated post on Japundit. Share [...]

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