Beauty Witch Contest

Wow..she is really beautiful. Kumi Minowa is 43 years old and was the winner of the 2014 “Bimajyo” contest. Bimajyo means “beautiful witch”..the contest target women in late 30s and 40s..Ordinary (meaning they are not celebrities) middle-aged women apply for an entrance into the special beauty contest.

The beautiful witches contest started in 2010. Japanese society tends to judge women very harshly based on their age. It shocks my American friends but women in 30s face employment discrimination especially when they are not married!

I hope that this type of contest will encourage Japanese media to feature more women in 40s who are beautiful, healthy and confident. These women deserve this special recognition. Even though they probably have “good” genes to begin with, they still have to work out and eat balanced meal..and most importantly feel beautiful and confident inside out.  Women in 40s are the new 20s! I hope I would look like her in my 40s.

This year’s winner is a regular housewife and lives in Tokyo but she used to be a model and aspiring singer. It is good that she may have an opportunity to do what she couldn’t do in her 20s.

What do you think? 

Japan is facing challenging situations, one of which is aging. By recognizing these beautiful women in 40, I think this will send a positive message to other middle aged Japanese women. Japanese women tend to be very pessimistic about their age so it is good to adopt this mentality of “age is just a number~”