Japaralia January 2026 vol. 28

English translation by Perplexity below

Vol. 28 New Year’s Convictions

Happy New Year.

Including the time before I went independent, it’s been about 15 years now since I started writing columns for Japaralia. The more years I spend writing about all sorts of things, the more I find myself wanting to write pieces that are genuinely useful and meaningful for readers. Rather than just talking on the surface level about “the latest machines!” or “what’s popular right now!”, I hope to write about what I consider to be a deeper, truer kind of beauty. And if, through what I share here, there is even a little something you can take away and learn from, that would make me very happy.

This is just how I personally feel, but looking at the world as a whole, it seems that as technology advances, we humans are becoming more and more shallow. People stop using their own minds, get tossed around by information, swallow it whole, and lose the ability to really think about what is actually true. Those who charge money and sell services understand this very well, and they pour their efforts into advertising, carefully choosing words that will sell. Even if the results you get after paying are a bit underwhelming, people who have been “conditioned” by ideas like “everyone says it’s good, so it must be” may avoid thinking any deeper about it.

There have been plenty of buzzwords that took on a life of their own in the beauty industry as well. If you’re interested in aesthetics, you’ve probably heard terms like “PICO” or “HIFU” at least once. I get a lot of inquiries about them too. But in reality, very few people truly understand what they mean. In most cases, people have simply been given the preconceived notion that “it’s really popular, so it must be good.” They are good technologies, but every device among the many out there has its own strengths and weaknesses. Advertising only ever highlights the strengths. Whether the treatment actually suits the concern you want to improve, which device is being used among all the machines based on the same technology, whether the practitioner has proper qualifications and experience, whether the content of the treatment matches the price—many different factors influence the results.

When we hear “latest device,” we tend to assume “latest = best,” but “latest” also tends to mean “more expensive.” So what, exactly, has become “latest”? In some cases, the effect is essentially unchanged, but the treatment has become quicker or less painful, and the price is marked up for that. In other cases, even though the device is the newest, the practitioner lacks the knowledge and experience to use it properly and ends up damaging the skin. I have seen many such cases. Whether the device is the latest or not, results will vary depending on who is doing the treatment.

Even when it comes to something like treating pigmentation, many different elements are involved: each person’s skin type, quirks, lifestyle, and more are all taken into account as treatment progresses. There are many people who imagine treatment to be much simpler than it is, and part of the challenge is communicating all of this clearly while providing care. In an age where the internet and AI make any kind of information easy to access, it feels more important than ever not to stop at the first or even second “layer” of understanding, but to develop the ability to use our own minds to see and understand things at a much deeper, deeper, deeper level. Through my treatments and through this column, I hope we can think about these things together.

The reason I’m bringing all of this up so early in the new year is that, to be honest, I just can’t bring myself to like the direction this era seems to be headed in. Maybe it’s more accurate to say I feel uneasy about it. Ever since I was old enough to be aware of myself, I’ve never been good at placing myself in the middle of a crowd. Watching the world now from a slight distance makes me feel a kind of anxiety, as if truly good things are slowly being replaced by something more shallow.

There are countless businesses related to beauty, and people talk about “competition,” but I have no intention of stretching myself unnecessarily or comparing myself to others. What I want is to offer my very best—my maximum—while taking the time to help clients really understand their own skin.

When it comes to skincare, I don’t aim for treatments that only chase strong, dramatic effects. I choose treatment plans that clients can feel safe receiving and can realistically continue. After in-clinic treatments, I select home-care products that help maintain the results without wasting the treatment, and that also help prevent future pigmentation and wrinkles. There are many “good” skincare products out there, so “good” is a given—but what I want to offer here is skincare that is truly “fantastic!”

In human relationships, people often put on a surface layer too. But surface-only conversations are exhausting. I want to stay true to myself and communicate honestly with others about what I feel, just as I feel it. And if there are people whose wavelength naturally matches mine and who choose to walk alongside me, that would make me genuinely happy. I hope I can continue to share everything I can do with all of you here.

Thank you so much for your continued support this year as well. ❤️