[JuanitoElChino]

Light skin has been associated with beauty and high social status in Japan for centuries. Members of the royal family and the upper class could afford to spend most of their time indoors, limiting their sun exposure, and therefore having paler skin. The lower class working in the fields had darker skin. Well, this is what I've heard from some of my aunts. Wanting to have pale or tanned skin is a matter of personal opinion. Not all non-European people want to be lighter. Hell, I'm Asian and Hispanic and we tan as much as much as White people do.