@McGrath: Yes, and in other Asian countries too. Last year my parents, brother and I went to Singapore to visit relatives, and I noticed a lot of stores there sell skin-whitening creams and other skin-whitening products. IIRC, it has to do with the days when poverty and hard labour meant you spent most of your time working out in the sun while a rich person could afford to stay inside because they had servants/tenants (if their family owned land).