I have not been to Japan yet, but I spent quite some time in a few cities in mainland China to share my perspective:
I’ve lived in Japan for several years and this isn’t my experience at all. It is quite common to encounter Japanese people with strong perfume, cigarette odours, halitosis, or body odours. Public transport is quite crowded and you will come into close contact with many people. Everyone becomes accustomed to their own smells and may be unaware of the discomfort that it causes others. As in every country, some individuals are more considerate of those around them than others.
One thing to note is that using deodorant or antiperspirant products is not a common cultural practice in Japan. It’s not something many people do on a daily basis and these products have limited selection and availability in Japan as a result. Fragrances and perfumes are seen as for special occasions but people do wear them in evenings and on weekends. It’s a pernicious myth that Japanese people don’t get sweat or have body odour, it’s common especially in onsen and the hot, humid summers.
Japanese and East Asians don’t get as much body odor because they have less apocrine sweat glands so they don’t need as much perfume, cologne, etc.
From Wikipedia’s article on Body odor:
East Asians (Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese) have fewer apocrine sweat glands compared to people of other descent, making East Asians less prone to body odor.
I don’t really have too much of an issue myself as I grew up in North America, but my cousin who lives in Japan used to complain about foreigners wearing excessive fragrances.
This is considered rude in most places in the world, it isn’t unique to Japan.
The only possible ‘Japan’ part of this is that Japanese people broadly tend to be a lot more considerate of others and make more of an effort not to disturb fellow-passengers than in many other countries. In Japan its rare to run into that one in a thousand person who just doesn’t care the way you might in Britain, China, Turkey, or wherehaveyou.
Eating smelly food is also a rude thing to do.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
4 Mar, 2024
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5 Mar, 2024