Japanese mom has her 9-year-old daughter undergo double eyelid surgery to be ‘beautiful’

November 14, 2022

A Japanese mother had her 9-year-old daughter go under the knife for a double eyelid surgery and is already considering future cosmetic operations, such as a nose job and breast augmentation.

The mother, only identified by her nickname Rucchi over her fear of being criticized by the public, shocked the internet after revealing to Vice Asia in a recent video from their “Deadly Beauty” series that she urged her daughter Micchi to undergo the surgery because her success would depend on her looks.

Recalling her past, Rucchi, who runs a mother-daughter YouTube channel about cosmetic surgery and makeup, notes how women in their neighborhood would give her younger sister more attention for having “amazing big eyes.” She adds that everyone thought her sister was “much cuter” because unlike Rucchi, she did not have monolids. Rucchi recalls that their neighbors never complimented her in the same way. She ultimately had her double eyelid surgery done after she turned 18.

“A girl needs double eyelids,” she says in the video. “I have never seen a girl with monolids who I thought was pretty. Double eyelids are beautiful. Double eyelids are the beauty standard. I say this again and again.”

Rucchi reportedly urged her daughter to choose the more expensive option for her surgery — which required getting a surgical cut on the creases of her eyelids and trimming the sagging skin — instead of the less invasive option. The operation cost approximately $2,850.

“I thought if I was already paying 400,000 yen for it, we might as well go all the way,” she says.

Despite being 9 years old, Micchi still went through with the procedure. Later on in the video, she can be seen in pain as the anesthesia administered to her did not work.

Rucchi notes that the procedure was expected to last for 20 minutes, but because of the complications, it took over two hours to finish. Her daughter explains to Vice Asia that she went through with the painful surgery because people would tell her that her eyes “are narrow, so it looked like I was glaring at people.”

“If you can endure the pain of plastic surgery, that makes you a beautiful person, in my opinion,” the girl says.

When asked how her life has changed since going through with the surgery, however, Micchi says that “it hasn’t really changed.” Rucchi then reminds her daughter that people have approached her to tell her much she looks “much cuter now” after the operation, to which the girl simply nods.

Cosmetic surgeries are legal for anyone under the age of 18 in Japan if they have a parent’s or guardian’s consent. Because of this law, many guardians have reportedly attempted to abuse it and change their children’s facial features with their own insecurities in mind, Toru Aso, a cosmetic surgeon in Tokyo, told Vice.

Last year, a Japanese clinic conducted a survey and found that nine out of 10 teenagers hoped to undergo plastic surgery. Two years before that, seven out of 10 teenagers wanted the same.

In 2020, a survey from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) discovered that eyelid surgery, also known as blepharoplasty, made up over 64 percent of all surgical procedures in Japan that year.

By the end of Vice Asia’s video, Rucchi shares that she wants her daughter to have a nose job one day. She then adds that she would also encourage Micchi to look into breast augmentation if she becomes conscious of her chest size when she gets older.

Featured Image via Vice Asia

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