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As Summers Heat Up, Smelly Customers Challenge Japan’s “Omotenashi”
A user at one game center in Japan reeked so badly that customers complained, and employees said they “wanted to vomit.”
By Jay Andrew Allen
Japan just had one of its most brutal summers on record. Fortunately, we seem to be entering fall and leaving summer in the rearview mirror. However, the season has left a lingering smell — and it’s coming from dudes who refuse to shower. The increasing prevalence of stinky people has left game centers, card shops, and other businesses in Japan wrestling with what to do about their most malodorous patrons.
Announcer fired for complaining that men smell
There’s a fiction (or racial stereotype) that people in Asia don’t give off body odor. That’s a contention that seems contradicted by a short ride on the Yamanote Line on a hot summer day.
It’s also contradicted by the experience of people in Japan. Many complain that the increasingly punishing summers lead to body odor challenges at work. “Smell harassment” has been a hot topic in Japanese news this summer, as employers and employees struggle…
