“What do Japanese women eat?” is something I get asked often, right after this question, “How do they stay so slim?” or after this one, “How do they look so good?” Here is a blog post that explores just this topic.

But before I begin, I’ll say this again: fashion mags are an indication of trends and habits and not 100% truth, but the following magazine scans will give you an idea what Japanese women eat.

I do know for a fact that nutritional self-help books are huge among Japanese women and I think there’s a strong link between an abhorrence of cosmetic surgery and their passion for looking their best “the natural way”.

As mentioned before, too, natto is seen as a daily beauty essential. Check this page out — it’s an entire editorial on a natto recipe. I’ve given up on trying to like natto as there’s not a lot of love between us!

It also occurred to me that Western beauty magazines like Allure don’t talk about food very much and in fact focus more on makeovers and such, but there is quite a substantial section on nutrition in Biteki.

Look at this feature on what real female medical professionals have for breakfast. It’s so cute that I had to smile.

This is such an elaborate breakfast! I do wonder if she makes this everyday or often at all. But maybe she does because her real age is 53 but she looks not a year above 35, I swear. By the way, she is a dentist.

What are her beauty secrets?! Her breakfast is a traditional home-style Japanese spread of stir-fried lotus root, rice, tofu and wakame miso soup, pickled cucumber and radish, natto, avocado salad with tomato and lettuce, and a carrot apple soy milk smoothie. Wow. Where does she find the time to make this, on top of getting to work punctually?

I find this doctor’s brekkie more realistic in terms of preparation time: a protein shake with green powder, soy milk, and pomegranate syrup, along with a bowl of fruit and yogurt.

She’s 40 but looks like she’s in her early 30s! By the way, she has a 3 year old daughter. But again, air brushing does that to you. So, she’s not as impressive as the one above, but I think her regime is definitely more believable.

Next up is a detox breakfast recommended by a dermatologist who is 31.

Let’s see: raw veggies, wholemeal bread, fresh fruit juice (apple, carrot, lemon) and a bowl of diced anchovies fried in olive oil, cream, and soy milk (ew!). Not seen in the picture above, she recommends taking egoma oil capsules which are made from the shiso (Japanese basil) plant and supposedly lowers cholesterol.

Interestingly, her daily routine is also mapped out — she wakes at 6am, jogs from 615 to 645am, has breakfast by seven, finishes work by 730pm, has dinner at 830pm and sleeps by midnight.

There were three more doctors who were featured but I’m not going to go into the details as it was more or less the same in the sense that they all had soy milk, yogurt, rice, fruit juice, veggies as part of their their diet and they woke up early and slept at a decent time. I’ll leave you with the scans, though.

So how do Japanese women remain svelte and youthful? There isn’t quite a “one-size-fits-all” answer but I think they just take on the Japanese ethos of balance where they don’t consume too much of anything, and also like many women around the world, they love consuming dietary supplements and beauty products.

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek inside a leading Japanese beauty mag — the similarities and differences are all charming and I feel chuffed I can read 50 per cent of the Japanese text in the magazine. If you missed the first two installments, they are here: Part I and Part II.

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