As in most countries, magazines aimed at young adults in Japan spend a lot of time talking about the opposite sex. Just as publications aimed at men often wax poetic about their image of the ideal woman, so too do women’s magazines write up collections of traits of desirable guys.
But one recent list has Japanese Internet users scratching their heads over its oddly specific list that includes such minutiae as foot size and social media preference.
The magazine’s methodology is a bit cryptic. Its staff approached some 500 fashionable men on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka, then asked them a series of questions about themselves while also collecting bits of hard data such as height and weight. From the responses, the magazine compiled what it says is the “average” version of a desirable guy.
As shared by Twitter user Hana-chan, the listed items start with:
- Hairstyle: Loose, soft, and mashed
- Height: 173 centimeters
- Weight: 62 kilograms
Okay, so far these all seem like pretty common things that people look at when judging a person’s attractiveness.
- Skin quality: A mixture of oily and dry skin
- College department: Arts and humanities
- Item he always has on him: Smartphone charger
Hmm…not sure how you’re supposed to mix two types of skin conditions, but yeah, all else equal, guys who major in more artistic subjects tend to be more popular with the ladies than those who major in dryer disciplines.
- How does he organize his schedule?: With a paper day planner
- Social media preference: Uses Instagram more often than Twitter
- Best dish when cooking: Fried rice (makes the most delicious in the world)
Seems a little odd that the guy who can’t leave the house without his smartphone charger keeps track of his appointments with a pen and paper, but hey, maybe there’s an old-school appeal there. What’s more confusing is how the multiple baseline fashionable guys on the planet are all supposed to be making the world’s most delicious fried rice.
- No girlfriend
- At drinking parties, he goes home on the last train.
- Recent worry: Finding a job
- Relatively strong desire: To date actress Satomi Ishihara
- Regular date plan: Watching a movie
- Shoe size: 26.5 centimeters
But while the magazine claims these were the average responses from the hundreds of sharp-looking men it talked to, the Japanese Internet isn’t so impressed. Starting with Hana-chan, who tweeted “The more I look at this, the more I realize I couldn’t deal with this type of guy,” online comments included:
“He looks like a relaxed otaku.” “Dude, it’s L [from Death Note]!.” “All I’m seeing is a bird’s nest on top of his head.” “He seems like a broke college student.” “Uses Instagram more often than Twitter ← Retweet this” “Well of course you’re going to be popular if you can make the world’s best fried rice.” “Wait, he’s got no girlfriend, but he has a regular date plan?”
Source: Jin
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Japanese magazine’s checklist for the ideal girl has a whopping 23 points -- Five reasons nerds make great boyfriends: Japan’s geeky otaku list their pros -- Otaku pro wrestler Tomoyuki Oka makes no apologies for blurring the nerd/jock boundary
© Japan Today
27 Comments
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sighclops
Japanese women's taste in men (in the general sense) is puzzling at times. Often, the 'ideal man' is almost more effeminate than they are! We only have the media to blame for this, though. Could pass off most of the boy band guys as women...
nath
Speaking as someone who was pretty ripped before getting married, muscles don't go nearly as far with the women here as they do in western lands. It's not a case of girls settling as much as it is that girls here in general just have less interest in big muscular guys.
Evan Hayden
whelp... I'm apparently too tall, too fat, too bearded, and my feet are too big. Luckily I already have a nice girl here who likes me. I'd better not show her this or the jig is up!
timeon
And the men's magazine lists traits of desirable girls: 1) Big boobs; 2),3), etc. Who cares?
savethegaijin
Everyone's got a type... my taste in guys definitely runs more on the lean, non-muscley type, but 5'8 and 135lbs is a really skinny guy... I wonder if they're just not good at measurements lol. My husband is a swimmer and he's rather skinny (a small back in the US, a medium in Japan) and even he's 5'8 and like 72kg...
nath
That depends on the girl. I married my wife when I was poor, making only 220,000/month. I promised my wife she could only ever expect a life of poverty, and she still married me.
gokai_wo_maneku
Well, Gokai is totally gay, but this guy could be my younger sister.
nath
Or for some of us, small boobs.
sensei258
Nothing else matters if the guy has money he's willing to spend on her.
Maria
Re. #4:
Combination skin, it's called. Check the products counters.
Still a dumb survey.
gogogo
So Japanese woman want, a drunk with no job, no girlfriend, patchy dry skin, and the only thing in his pocket is a smartphone charger?
Yubaru
Magazine name? More stereotypical BS.
noypikantoku
fake magazine surveys and fake documentaries..no wonder why J-entertainment gets so un-interesting, this is what you get for not having a freedom of expression, you lose ideas and end up writing BS like this.
Noble713
@Strangerland
For clarification: I don't mean huge roided-up guys, that's definitely popular in the West but intimidates most women out here. I once had a girl say that Flo Rida was "too big and looks like a gorilla". I mean a lean athletic physique like Brad Pitt in Fight Club or Ryan Reynolds:
http://tinypic.com/r/29p5hqb/8
Definitely way more popular than either extreme. "Chou kakkoii..."
Kira Minaki
Had a really good laugh reading this. Not quite sure how those traits are.... "Desirable" (?)
Kaerimashita
13 is hilarious and 14 is boring.
sensei258
She must have seen something she liked, congratz.
MyTimeIsYourTime
Perhaps questions like this should be asked of the blind?
Livvie
The male version of this questionnaire is equally as puzzling. Apparently guys like a girl who was in the dance club in school but doesn't like to exercise much and is 48 kilograms....okay...
Black Sabbath
Oh boy. Not this again.
Look, just like everywhere on this rock, there are many different kinds of women in Japan, looking for many different kinds of things in a guy, or a gal for that matter. In fact, you just might say every woman is an individual, with her own particular likes, idiosyncrasies and tastes, that there is no formulae for attraction or love, and the best thing any of us can do is get out there, meet people and see how it goes.
Serrano
"Hairstyle: Loose, soft, and mashed"
Mashed?
nath
I was somewhere between that pic and the 'roid monkeys.
Mocheake
What the hell is this thing trying to say?
cheon
Execpt 13, It's totally me...
Noble713
So basically the staff hit on the guys they were attracted to and gathered data on them? This tells us nothing beyond the interests of the magazine staff.
So 5'8" and 135lbs? That's pretty scrawny.... Females who grab a pectoral or bicep muscle consistently get weak in the knees. I guess there's a dearth of athletic/muscular men amongst Japan's urban metrosexual population, so the ladies settle for what they can find.
No surprise there.... worthless degree = no job prospects.
MyTimeIsYourTime
We like thick wallets and non-racists.
Alex80
How much ethnocentrism in this comment. Don't you think it is natural for Japanese women have a soft spot for thin men since Asian men have never been very muscular in the first place? I'm Italian and I tend to prefer thin men as well. When I see your typical very, very tall and "great" North European tourist in my city (usually they are German or Dutch guys) I'm not very impressed by them. I prefer a more gentle looking guy, and even though Italian guys are very bad in personality (imho, lol) I think they are in general better looking than North European men. But I'm aware my aestetich sense is influenced by your average people around me, it's not "right" or "wrong".