The witches of Tokyo: An investigation into the bimajyo trend

Recently, ‘bimajyo’ (美魔女) came into focus in Japan. Bimajyo are women 35 and above who look much younger than their actual ages. They put on nice make-up, their hair is nicely arranged, and they are very fashionable. On top of that they maintain their skin very well, hardly have wrinkles and age spots, and keep their body fit. The term was coined by the Japanese magazine Bi-STORY (美 STORY) in 2009, and became more widely recognized because of a TV variety show that introduced the concept of this female figure. Bimajyo is an extreme example of women who want to stay young, but the author has observed that many Japanese women around 40 years old, regardless of their marital status and occupation, look very young. They try to be young not only in their appearance but also try to make the way they speak and the tone of their voice young. The article also argues that the recent phenomenon of the quest of keeping young-looking among Japanese women could be one of the causes of the postponement of maturity, which is also prevalent in Japanese society and can be related to various social problems.