Strong yen drawing Japanese women to S Korea for plastic surgery

Han Myok was “the most sympathized-with woman in South Korea,” says Shukan Asahi (Feb 27). She owed her fame to insatiable media interest in her bloated face—which in turn she owed to an astonishing addiction. Plastic surgery was her drug. She simply couldn’t get enough of it.

It’s not quite as odd as it sounds. So widespread is cosmetic surgery in South Korea, the magazine hears from a Seoul-based journalist, that “old women tell their grandchildren, ‘If you don’t have it done, you’ll never amount to anything.’”

The high yen and low South Korean won give the story a relevance to Japan. Japanese women, Shukan Asahi finds, are flocking to Seoul in droves, snapping at the perceived chance to remodel themselves at once-in-a-lifetime bargain prices. But bargains invariably carry hidden costs. This one is no exception.

Han, now in her late 40s, aspired as a young woman to be a singer. There’s only one hope for a singer with an unexceptional voice—exceptional beauty. Han didn’t have that, but her first go at plastic surgery definitely made her prettier. Wouldn’t a second operation make her prettier still? Repeated silicon injections filled out her cheeks. If she’d known when to stop, she might have been all right. But she seemed to believe that beauty, real beauty, was just around the corner. Possibly the next injection would do it, or the next, or the one after. Alarmed, her friends urged her to stop. But the voice in her head sang a different song: “You want to be beautiful? Silicon, more silicon!”

Finally her doctors cut her off. Han took matters into her own hands. She began injecting herself at home with a silicon substitute—a mixture of soybean oil and paraffin. The eventual result was a face so distorted as to be (if the photograph the magazine features is anything to go by) scarcely human. Psychiatric treatment followed, after which 15 restorative operations removed a total of 4 kg of granulated fat.

Everyone wants to be beautiful. Plastic surgeons thrive on that quirk of human nature. The yen, hyper-strong against the won, is an added inducement that many Japanese women are finding irresistible. Shukan Asahi, without citing numbers or prices, speaks of special “plastic surgery tours” whisking beauty-seekers to Seoul for treatments that may never be cheaper.

Beware of two dangers in particular. First, says one agent, you can make your reservations only to find the clinic you’re set up with so crowded you can’t get serviced in time. Secondly, and more ominously, some plastic surgeons have been known to put quick profit ahead of ethical practice, as Han’s case seems to prove. Some South Korean surgeons are reportedly not even properly licensed. Do a thorough background check before an operation, warns Shukan Asahi.

As for Han, “Even now, whenever I look into a mirror I feel a desire for cosmetic surgery. But, she adds, “I’m controlling myself.”

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 28 Total Comments Show All

Zenpun at 12:49 PM JST - 26th February

For celebrities, having cosmetic surgery is understandable. They are selling their looks for millions of bucks. Eighty percent of Korean and Japanese movie stars transformed their looks with knives. Although they are looking better and more western, they are not natural. They look like more comic characters.

For some people, it will get the tragic consequence like Han Myok. She wanted to get the perfect face. In the reality, she was addicted for injecting cooking oil into her face. She was pretty thousand of times before that. It is a sad story of image obsessive Asians. I am proud of my Asian heritage and will never change my appreance with knives. It cause more harm than gain. Good look will not last long. It is just a moment of lifecycle.
ForeignKiri at 01:36 PM JST - 26th February

old women tell their grandchildren, ‘If you don’t have it done, you’ll never amount to anything.’”

That's a POOR excuse to live...and shame on them for deriving such nonsense... I heard pain= beauty but never Beauty = change your body and face for self worth!
Rigs83 at 02:06 PM JST - 26th February

Men inject themselves with dangerous drugs and exercise so much that they actually do permanent damage to their muscles and must live with terrible pain for the rest of their lives because they sought to live to an unreasonable expectation of how a man should appear very much the same way many women resort to drastic plastic surgery to reach the female ideal as dictated by the public at large.Now teenagers in the US are embedding thing under there skin the for the same reasons they use to slash themselves, to fill a void in their lives. These people have a sickness and we should not judge them poorly for what they can't control but try to help them as best we can.
BigInJapan at 03:54 PM JST - 26th February

It's supposed to be a warning to Japanese women about the problems which can arise

Having a Korean face in Japan? :) Not a good idea.
johnshiomi at 04:36 PM JST - 26th February

Not the outer appearance, but rather the inner lack of self-esteem is what really needs to be altered. Until this is changed nothing is really solved.
suebe36d at 05:32 PM JST - 26th February

If not superficial/minor, either expensive aftercare or only short-term happy effect. Ladies, clear hurdles of balanced diet, exercise including facial, clean without abrading/corroding then flatter with sensible fashion.
LoveUSA at 06:11 PM JST - 26th February

Cosmetic surgery should be banned, except for people who suffered in accidents.
memyselfI at 06:46 PM JST - 26th February

My girlfriend needs balloons !!!! But I love her the same. I like the natural imperfect look.
whyamiinjapan at 11:41 PM JST - 26th February

I can only think of Mickey Rourke when I hear this. A nation of Mickey Rourkes. Or Mickey Mouses. Can you imagine having plastic surgery that would make you look like Mickey Mouse? Or Doraemon?
usaexpat at 12:31 AM JST - 27th February

Don't do it, I've heard horror stories like people being injected with industrial as opposed to medical grade silicon
usaexpat at 12:35 AM JST - 27th February

http://galleries.thelondonpaper.com/plastic_surgery/3

Here are some pictures of the woman in the story, scary stuff
seesaw at 03:40 PM JST - 27th February

oh no! (I've taken a look into that website)...thanks for info! It's really scary.
NeoJamal at 08:41 AM JST - 3rd March

For some people, it will get the tragic consequence like Han Myok.

Or graver cases like Madonna and Gackt, where plastic surgery has allowed them to torment the public at large.
mushroomcloud at 06:45 AM JST - 9th March

I guess this means that alot of Japanese (and Korean) women think of themselves as rather ugly.
bamboohat at 09:02 AM JST - 10th March

The most famous plastic surgeon of all time, Maxwell Maltz, wrote in Psyco Cybernetics how all of the positive changes he witnesses in his patients came from the inside, regardless how the outside looked. This gives scientifically observed credence to old addage "Beauty is an inside Job."