Japanese diets seemed to be superior in another aspect, it could account for height growth but less weight growth proportionately. This means that women are growing taller but with less weight correspondingly compared to their Western counterparts. They are in effect growing taller and slimmer at the same time. This will have larger impact on Japanese fashion sense and concept of beauty as it brings them closer to the supermodels in the West rather than the shorter versions that the Asians are generally used to. Again, this needs to be studied further. 

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is also aware of changes in the Japanese and is instituting milk drinking in China subject to budgetary constraints. For the first time in history, the average height of Japanese women is either taller or equal to that of the Koreans and Chinese. Some Chinese are even known to have broken their leg bones into two to lengthen them in a vain attempt to catch up with their height.  According to a report in the Shanghai Daily, The Beijing Institute of Clothing Technology has found that the average chest circumference of Chinese woman has hit 83.53 centimeters, up nearly 1 cm from the early 1990s. The growth trend is credited to women eating more nutritiously and taking part in more sports. And bra companies are listening. Hong Kong-based Embry Group and Taiwanese underwear brand Ordifen now carry large cup size bras - something that they did not do in the past. In fact, they have either discontinued small cup bras or eliminated them.  (Related:  Leg extension surgery)

The gap with the rest of East Asians is however growing as Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations have plunged into economic crisis in 1997 making food even scarcer while countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia are still grappling with socialist transition to market economies and may not be able to catch up as much in dietary needs. Some fashion enthusiasts commented that Japanese bra sizes are now the largest in Asia due to all the factors above that have made Japanese women larger.

In most developing nations in East Asia, the women’s menstrual cycle still start at about 16 years old, a whopping 4 years difference with the Japanese women. This could possibly imply an earlier development of intelligence and productive contribution to the Japanese economy much earlier compared to their East Asian counterparts elsewhere, making the Japanese closer or surpassing Western European or American standards. This feature has not been  intensely studied yet.

Other than the United States, international organizations like WHO have also studied the Japanese miracle growth in women. Even archeologists and anthropologists in Japan have been studying the height and size growth. The only other significant period in Japanese history in which there was a huge height growth was when the mainland northeast Asians from the continent invaded the Japanese islands and intermarriage occurred between the two species, increasing the height of traditional archipelago Japanese. This theory remains controversial and is widely accepted by people in those fields.  

Future Trends. Will Japan’s decreasing population size allow more resources to be focused on Japanese women’s dietary needs and lifestyle needs? Will lower Japanese populations ensure more food and more space for Japanese women and men, promoting growth in the process? These questions remained unanswered for now.  It is also not known if the Japanese government would allow manipulation of food substances (or have they already done so) to further increase the size and health of Japanese women and youngsters. Will more Japanese women who play sports or want to look good take growth hormones? Would there be foods that will make Japanese grow even more (are the super large famous hi-tech Fuji apples an indication of future monster food)? Would they go the American way and have elderly women take more male hormones to combat aging and menopause? Nobody knows the answers.