There is an annual beauty contest for older women in Japan and this 52-year-old just won

A woman’s beauty has been rated on many levels, such as in terms of the ideal body ranking and the recently announced Miss Universe. Suffice to say, these are usually dominated by young ladies in their prime age. In Japan though, there is a beauty contest for older women, specifically termed as bimajo.

Bimajo can roughly be translated as “beautiful witch”. It is used to refer to women aged 35 and above but look very young for their age, as if through magical means. The contest is currently in its 10th year running, and as many as 1200 women all over Japan entered this year’s contest on 5 Dec. In a quest to find the “Best of Bimajo”, this year’s contest has selected the queen from five finalists and the past nine winners.

In the photos above, the contestants are:

1. Kaoru Sakamura (52 years old, 2010 winner)

2. Yuko Wada (46 years old, 2011 winner)

3. Fumika Maeda (47 years old, 2012 winner)

4. Mayumi Nishimura (45 years old, 2013 winner)

5. Mika Sakamoto (42 years old, 2014 winner)

6. Junsei Miyama (46 years old, 2015 winner)

7. Maiko Taguchi (42 years old, 2016 winner)

8. Hiromi Takahashi (43 years old, 2017 winner)

9. Rie Umemoto (48 years old, 2018 winner)

10. Shoko Otsuka (40 years old)

11. Ayumi Kawabata (39 years old)

12. Yonhi Cho (41 years old)

13. Makiko Hamaki (45 years old)

14. Reiko Kaneda (42 years old)

As it turns out, the oldest contestant Kaoru Sakamura, who was also the winner in the inaugural Bimajo contest, took the crown this year. She commented, “My heart is full. It is difficult to compete when you are 52 years old. I would like to move forward without feeling ashamed of being a bimajo.”

Indeed magical! Colour us surprised, but she definitely does not look like someone in her fifties.