How weight loss can help you stand out in a appearance-obsessed society

This hereditary-based society gradually weakened after the mid-Meiji period (around 1890).

"What should be valued is not the family or clan, but the individual; this is the advanced state." This new value system became the driving force behind the shift towards a more academically-based society. Factors such as which school one graduated from, what profession one holds, and one's social status became important.

This was because people began to realize that measuring a person's worth by their individual qualities was more accurate than considering family background.

From hereditary-based to academically-based, the primary labels changed with societal progress.

Academically-based society dominated Japan during the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras. By the mid-to-late 20th century, this system collapsed abruptly.

Using "I graduated from a top university" as an excuse was no longer sufficient. Everyone genuinely felt that academic qualifications were no longer the trump card they once were.

One reason for the collapse of a credential-driven society is the "bubble economy" and the "IT bubble."

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are more attractive than top-tier companies. SME owners who accumulate wealth through personal entrepreneurship are cooler than corporate elites protected by the halo of their companies. "Economic and time freedom"—the ability to freely dispose of one's finances and time—becomes the benchmark for measuring a person's value, rather than stable income and status.

As a result, income and its symbols, such as luxury cars and fashion, become primary labels and are given priority.

"The IT company owner who drives a Ferrari," "The female boss dressed head-to-toe in Chanel." Society no longer evaluates a person based on their character or ability, but rather on the amount of assets they possess and what they own. If such a society were to be called, "brandism" would be most appropriate; even education has been reduced to a mere element of branding.

However, this kind of brand-ism, unlike education or family background, doesn't possess enduring value, and thus it died out in 2007.

From a family-based society that lasted for centuries, to an education-based society that lasted for nearly a century, and then to a brief brand-based society, the primary label—the first element used to rank people—has also changed.

No longer clinging to brands, but valuing personal feelings and likes and dislikes, this value system has begun to permeate people's lives. In my books such as *Our Brainwashing Society* and *Freon*, I call this value system "self-feeling supremacy" and explain it in detail.

Simply put, self-feeling supremacy prioritizes the feelings of the "present moment" above everything else. Quitting a job because of falling in love is glorified, and simply saying there are no feelings left can be used as a reason for divorce.

More than that, in modern society, not being true to one's own feelings in the "present moment" means failure, and only by being true to one's own feelings can one achieve self-realization and victory.

This kind of self-centeredness justifies and elevates one's subjective feelings above all else; once one says, "That's how I think," no one is allowed to refute it. Even when judging others, subjective feelings are considered more valuable than objective factors like education or family background.

As a result, the standard for evaluating others becomes a subjective impression—in other words, judging by appearance. People are categorized based on their appearance and subjective impressions.

When we first meet someone, we categorize them based on our initial impression.

For example, "cheerful," "womanizing older man," "neurotic," "therapist," "seems nice," "looks gay," "childish," etc. These impressions are either descriptive or figurative. When introducing friends, we might show photos or selfies to let others know what kind of person our friend "looks" like.

When choosing a restaurant, besides the taste and price, the interior decoration, atmosphere, and the appearance of the staff are equally important factors. In the past, food books typically only featured photos of high-end dishes. But now, they invariably dedicate large sections to photos of the restaurant's ambiance and atmosphere.

This is a characteristic of a superficial society.