Tokyo’s Collagen Consumer Craze

With 42% of its population projected to be at the age of 60 or older, the already beauty-conscious citizens of Japan have been buying up collagen-based products in the hopes of prolonging their youthful appearances. This is instantly evident in Tokyo where a visit to a nearby RanKing RanQueen – a convenience store chain that only carries products that have top sales rankings in their respective categories – will reveal that even the best selling bottled water and gum in the city have collagen as the prominent ingredient. No solid evidence exists yet on the effectiveness of actually ingesting collagen but that’s definitely not stopping the consumption. Pigs’ feet and suppon (soft-shell turtle) have become popular items on the menu – particularly for females – because of their collagen content. Some recent restaurant feedback from Reuters:

“There is a lot of collagen in suppon meals. All our female customers that come to eat collagen say their skins are doing much better the next morning, when they put on make-up,” Sosuke Miyagawa, the owner of suppon restaurant Hanabishi.