I happened to see that popular actress Ayame Gouriki, famous for her energetic nature and boyish short-cut hair, was awarded this year’s “E-Line Beautiful” award by the Japan Association of Adult Orthodontics, which essentially means she got an award for having an extremely beautiful face when viewed in profile. If you think this is a pretty silly thing to give an award for, you’re right: it’s just one of dozens of awards given in Japan for purely PR purposes. There’s the Nail Queen Award for the woman with the most beautiful fingernails, one for models with beautiful legs, the Nice Couple Award for the most congenial married couple, plus the Japan Megane Best Dresser Award, given to the most fashionable female who wears glasses. There are hundreds of literary awards, too, so many in fact that only a few of them are worth receiving. Virtually every publishing company has established a line of “prestigious” awards to dole out to writers each year, though the really important award for Japanese literature is the Akutagawa Award, or the Tezuka Award for manga. There’s even a local version of the Academy Awards called…the Japan Academy Awards, where Japanese actors and directors win awards for Japanese films made during the year.
Ayame-chan won an award for having a beautiful profile.
