Actually, lighter skin used to be an issue for westerners too. Lighter skin suggested the same thing as it did in Asia and tanned skin was looked down upon. Rec

Actually, lighter skin used to be an issue for westerners too. Lighter skin suggested the same thing as it did in Asia and tanned skin was looked down upon. Recently, with the massive changes in the economy over the past hundred or so years, tanned skin has begun to demonstrate leisure and wealth more than paleness, so the situation has reversed. Korea and Japan have modernized much recently than America and the West so that could be the reason.