Recession-hit Japanese women go under the knife to up job chances

On the downside, however, problems involving plastic surgery patients are also on the rise. "Numbers of people seeking plastic surgery, especially among young women, are on the rise because many young women think changing their face would give better opportunity to find a good job during the recession," said Fumihiko Umezawa, director of Japan's most famous private cosmetic surgery Jujin Hospital in Tokyo.

Umezawa, who is also president of the Japan Society of Aesthetic Surgery, said statistics on how many people receive cosmetic surgery are difficult to determine as it is not covered by social insurance. But he believes the number has increased sevenfold since the 1980s.

He said the greatest number of patients used to be bar hostesses in their late 20s to 30s who gave Japan's cosmetics surgery profession its "back-street" reputation. However, Jujin hospital's statistics now show that about 45 per cent of patients now are women in their late teens to early 20s who change their face before starting their job search.

The most-requested surgical procedures are the addition of a second fold to the eyelid which costs about 100,000 yen (934 dollars). The aim is to make more of the eye visible rather than being hidden behind the eyelid. About 40 per cent of Japanese have what doctors in Japan call the "single-edged heavy eyelid".

In Japan, cosmetic surgery using paraffin to change the appearance of eyelids and the nose was introduced in Japan's Meiji Era of between 1868-1912. Until the 1980s, cosmetic surgery was viewed as something that plain women depended on to win the respect of others. There were some movies or TV dramas in Japan in which unattractive women became beautiful through plastic surgery.

While the demand for plastic surgery has risen and the number of privately run cosmetics surgery clinics increased, the number of problems involving plastic surgery patients is also on the rise. More than 10 per cent of patients who visited the plastic surgery department of a large university hospital in Tokyo were there to alleviate the unpleasant symptoms and side effects of botched plastic surgey operations performed at private clinics.

According to a survey by Showa University Hospital in Tokyo, of the 400 new patients who visited the hospital's plastic surgery department for examinations and operations in July and August, 42 were found to have experienced problems at private clinics.

Kazuhisa Haraguchi, assistant professor and medical doctor at Showa, said the number of patients reporting with problems from botched plastic surgery operations in September-October period had risen by more than 20 per cent compared with the July-August period.

"Many cases point to the fact that the operations have been conducted by those without basic training in plastic surgery," said Haraguchi. The doctor said a woman in her 40s visited the hospital this spring to get rid of the swelling that occurred after she had her nose straightened.

Plastic surgeons at the hospital extracted the tooth of a surgical saw from a woman's nose. The doctor who had operated on her at a private clinic reportedly explained that he had intentionally left the tooth inside her nose to stabilize its new position.

Haraguchi said the level of competence of some plastic surgeons is in question. He said some physicians enter the field of cosmetic surgery without ever having studied plastic surgery. "The problem is that more private clinics hire inexperienced doctors in order to make money due to the rise of the demand of plastic surgery in Japan," said Haraguchi.

Japan's medical laws allow doctors to decide what medical services they will offer after they graduate from medical school, with the exception of dentists, who need special licenses. The filed of plastic surgery tends to attract more doctors without a proper background than any other field, because of the high income.

Japan's Association of Aesthetic Medicine has seen the number of requests for counseling from unhappy plastic surgery patients rise every year from 140 in 1992 to more than 300 every year since 1996. A spokeswoman at the association said the actual number of people who have problems is, however, probably far more.

Lawyer Seiji Ikemoto said few people are brave enough to sue the hospitals and clinics. They fear going through the humiliation of revealing unsuccessful plastic surgery and being forced to explain the reasons for the surgery in court. "Plastic surgery is still a new field and there is no clear statement in Japanese law dealing with such complaints," said the lawyer.

Ikemoto said those who proceed with a court case seldom win. He said judges usually tell the unhappy patients that it is their own fault for having plastic surgery in the first place with no thought given to the risk that accompanies it.

(la/dpa)