Cosmetic surgery for children becoming commonplace

“I’ll never forget how shocked I was when I discovered the age of a certain patient of mine. She was nine,” a plastic surgeon tells Shukan Shincho (Nov 20).

That was eight years ago. Since then, the weekly finds, cosmetic surgery for elementary school children has become commonplace. Sometimes the kids themselves don’t like their appearance. Sometimes it’s the parents who see room for improvement. We’re given no indication of how many patients are involved nationwide, but we are told what 90% of them are after: folded eyelids, to make their eyes look bigger and their faces more Western.

Cosmetic surgery is not by definition trivial. We’re told the story of one small girl with a large mole under her nose. Classmates teased her mercilessly about having snot on her face. Mother and daughter were at the clinic, both sobbing. It is good that procedures are available to remove the cause of such misery.

Ingrown eyelashes are another serious problem plastic surgeons see in young children. Exceptions duly allowed for, however, “the overwhelming majority,” Shukan Shincho hears from a surgeon, “are out to look like some celebrity or other. Sometimes they show up with a photograph cut out of a magazine. Sometimes it’s the mother who’s the enthusiastic one, and when I get the child alone she’ll burst into tears and say, ‘I don’t want folded eyelids; my mom made me come.”

Unfortunately, we’re not told what the surgeon does in such cases. Presumably he acts in the spirit of a law which, says Shukan Shincho, classifies forcing children into unwanted plastic surgery as a form of child abuse—an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Most often, though, mother and child seem of one mind on the subject. “The ‘junior idol’ boom started in 1995,” the magazine hears from an “idol watcher.” “Since then, the competition among would-be child stars has grown intense, and plastic surgery among them is routine. Over the past few years, that has trickled down into the ranks of ordinary elementary school kids.”

“I got a phone call from the mother of a child whose eyelids I’d folded,” relates a surgeon. “‘What kind of monster face have you given her!’ she cries. ‘Listen,’ I tell her, ‘you can’t make a child look like [singer] Ayumi Hamasaki by tinkering with this or that part of her face!’ But the mother insisted on having the work redone for free, according to the terms of the guarantee. Over the next two years, I did it over and over, but it was no use—the girl simply did not turn into Hamasaki.”

Then there’s the case of the fourth-grade boy whose mother ordered the doctor to remove all body hair so that it wouldn’t grow back. Why? “He has such white skin—I’m going to make a unisex celebrity out of him,” the mother said. “The boy himself was determined to proceed, so we went ahead,” the doctor tells the magazine. “Then the boy went berserk: ‘It hurts! Stop!’ Two of the office staffers had to hold him down.”

We hear of one woman who, in tears, begged a surgeon to fold her daughter’s eyelids. For some reason, she didn’t want her husband to know that she’d had her own eyelids surgically folded as a child. If the daughter’s eyelids also displayed the fold, the husband would assume the trait was hereditary.

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Latest 15 of 35 Total Comments Show All

magpie at 09:55 AM JST - 25th November

The reality is we live in a superficial world where things are measured and valued in a way that wopuld shock people with any commonsense.

There should be some kind of law which regulates the use of plastic surgery for minors such that it is only performed on those that truly need it (to correct or repair any disformed feature or injury). Once you're over 18 sure, deceide what you want after you've had a proper time to think it through. As a minor what can you possibly want to change (unless it is disfigured of course) and what says you won't change your mind? As for parents who want to change their kids, what possibly gives you the right to change what is there and that isn't wrong, coz mate it originally came from you or your partner?

Similarly doctors who perfiorm such surgey on minors at their or their parents fancy should be struck off any list of registered practitioners.
JOKERXJOKER at 10:57 AM JST - 25th November

mommy..mommy...can i had that big boobs like ms dolly....hahahaha..sick to the core..
gogogo at 02:10 PM JST - 25th November

People are weird
Cos at 02:53 PM JST - 25th November

Hamasaki ? Oh my ! I'd want to have surgery if I had the bad luck to look like her naturally. When the child will be adult, nobody will even remember that talento, but a young woman be left with that weird artificial face, and regrets of her natural looks.

I really think there should be a minimum age of 16 for aesthetic operations, and all the cases of younger kids should be decided by a judge after consulting a panel psychologists and doctors. Surely, I don't want to let a child grow up with split lips or half his face red when there is a way to repare. But the shape of eyes ? It's silly.
yasukuni at 04:01 PM JST - 25th November

If this story is true, it's one of the most depressing things I've read in a long time. Yes, there should be a law against it. But in a perfect world, there would be a law against those kinds of parents having kids in the first place.
You have to pity the kids who have parents like that.
spucky at 08:54 PM JST - 25th November

I do not really understand the Parents, but more problems for me are the Doc`s! They have to stop doing such things, they hurt Kids and the only Reason is Money!
realist at 09:44 PM JST - 25th November

Totally sick and depraved. Japanese society going down the plughole.
helloklitty at 02:58 AM JST - 26th November

If you had a choice of being very intelligent or very beautiful, which would you choose?

I would choose being very beautiful, because you get more advantages in life. I know from experience.
kokuryu at 05:11 AM JST - 27th November

Wow, so young! Can kids go in and have surgery without parent's consent? Sort of sounded like that was possible based on how the article was written. I can see removing the mole and other correctional type issues, but what do they mean by "folded eyelids"? Seems like there should be a law banning cosmetic surgery for kids to make them look like an idol.
pathat at 06:25 AM JST - 28th November

When so many young girls want to look like Saaya Irie, when so many guys want to look at Saaya Irie, and adults around Saaya Irie make a lot of money off the way she looks following a boob job from age 14 or 15 to cater to her fans, then you've got a problem, Japan.
Spanishwoman at 09:43 AM JST - 28th November

I can't believe it. Unless if there were psichological problems, I would never change the appearance of my children. And of course, never to make them look like some celebrity. I am not at all a beauty, but I would be happy if my child somehow resembles me :)
ekaningtyas at 11:59 AM JST - 28th November

children are after all the easiest target for exploitation. it is sad to know that this is already happening. it is sad to know that there are still children who are not taught to respect and love their own self for who they are. it is sad if this is one of the reasons why the suicide rate in Japan is very high. aren't doctors sworn to help people? is technology that great that humans are actually being sacrificed? if so, then aren't we not moving forward but backwards to the time of the nuclear bombing of Japan? it is really sad.........
memyselfI at 01:22 PM JST - 28th November

If the child has a huge birthmark on his face or other facial deformity. I am for it.
Himajin at 09:33 AM JST - 3rd December

If the daughter’s eyelids also displayed the fold, the husband would assume the trait was hereditary.

How is she going to explain the daughter coming home with bruising around the eyes? How dumb, to think he wouldn't notice.
littleboy at 01:07 PM JST - 8th December

Man, society here is getting trashy. At Least it's not violent though. I suppose it's a trade off.