[loversandhaters]

Well, I read a couple of articles about this subject, the last was this summer in the newspaper. xD
It said that in Japanese society being tanned is associated with working in the open air, like farmers and construction-builders and people like that. Those are very often relatively poor people, so being tanned kind of means you are poor. When you are white, you don't have to work much, don't need to go outside when you don't want to, etcetera.
It also said something about people in Japan going more and more to beaches and so, but with umbrellas and hats to protect themselves from getting tanned. xD

It's only what the article said, I don't know if it's really true!