This is a thoughtful introduction to Japan's burgeoning beauty culture. It investigates a wide range of phenomena - aesthetic salons, dieting products, male beauty activities, and beauty language - to find out why Japanese women and men are paying so much attention to their bodies. Laura Miller uses social science and popular culture sources to connect breast enhancement, eyelid surgery, body hair removal, nipple bleaching and other beauty work to larger issues of gender ideology, the culturally constructed nature of beauty ideals, and the globalisation of beauty technologies and standards.