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Japanese dating site’s picture of ideally attractive woman: young, no sleeves, college education

Casey Baseel Oct 17, 2019
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Younger men don’t enjoy the same popularity, though.

With nearly 1.4 million registered female users, Japanese matchmaking app Pairs boasts that it’s one of the largest online romance resources in the country. Yet even with so many potential partners, online media company Parasol noticed that some single ladies are particularly popular.

Parasol sifted through Pairs’s profiles, first finding the 500 most popular female profiles on its site. Once it had done that, it examined those women’s specific traits, helping to create a picture of the ideally attractive single lady.

According to Parasol, the female profile that’s most likely to attract attention from male users is
● A woman who’s 24-26 years old
● Wearing a sleeveless top or a kimono in her profile photo
● Neither skinny nor heavyset
● Graduated from a four-year university
● 159 centimeters (5.2 feet) tall

When taking a look at the top 500 women’s profiles, the women’s ages show a steeply undulating curve. 24, 25, and 26-years old were the three most common, each accounting for over 12 percent of the most popular profiles, with sharp drop-offs coming after the ages of 26 and 30. There’s also a dip in popularity at 23, which Parasol speculates might be because they’re not seen as young and carefree as college students, yet not quite settled into sophisticated young adulthood.

▼ The blue line shows what percentage (left axis) of the 500 most popular women each age (bottom axis) accounted for, while the red line shows the age distribution of Pairs’ entire group of female users

Meanwhile, female users showed a preference for more mature gentlemen, with hardly any of the 500 most popular men being younger than 25. The largest portion of the top guys was 28 years old, and after 32 their representation plummeted in dating website’s top tier.

▼ Percentage of women (red line) and men (blue line) by age in the top 500 profiles for their respective genders

Moving on to visual appeal, the fashion choices for the 500 most popular women reveal that either skin or traditional Japanese attire were the most likely to attract guys’ eyes.
● Sleeveless top: 60.8 percent
● Yukata/kimono: 13.6 percent
● Miniskirt/shorts 8.8 percent
● Bathing suit: 7.8 percent
● Off-shoulder top: 6.6 percent
● Sweater: 5.4 percent
● Cosplay outfit: 1.8 percent

For women’s physiques, “normal” was by far the most common among the most popular profiles, though it’s worth noting that Japan’s concept of “normal” would be considered “slim” in many other parts of the world.
● Normal: 53 percent
● Slightly slim: 19.4 percent
● Slightly plump: 6.2 percent
● Slim: 5.6 percent
● Busty/curvy: 4.4 percent
● Muscular: 1.4 percent
● Plump: 0.2 percent

And, lest you think that guys were only interested in looks, the majority of the 500 most popular women were college-educated.
● College graduate: 54 percent
● Junior college/specialty school graduate: 17.4 percent
● High school graduate: 7.6 percent
● Graduate school graduate: 2 percent
● Other: 1.6 percent

▼ For “other,” that’s probably referring to middle school graduates (middle school being the end of compulsory education in Japan), though it’s technically possible that “secluded mountain martial arts academy” would also fall into that category.

Unfortunately, Parasol hasn’t released any data for the 500 most popular men aside from the age break-down shown in the graph above, but if you are snapping a profile pic, it’s probably worth remembering that while guys like the no-sleeve look for girls, the feeling isn’t exactly mutual.

Source: PR Times
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: PR Times, Pakutaso
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[ Read in Japanese ]