Member-only story
“Smell Harassment”: Japan’s Newest Workplace Controversy
It may not get you fired, but many on Japanese social media say “smell harassment” lowers productivity and team collaboration.
Have you ever had a coworker who smelled so bad you felt nauseous being near them and couldn’t focus on your work? There’s now a term for that in Japan: smell harassment (スメルハラスメント), often shortened to sume-hara (スメハラ), which refers to making someone uncomfortable through strong offensive smells like body odor and bad breath.
With the rainy season coming up, sume-hara and a general concern over body odor are back in the news. Unlike other overt forms of workplace harassment, there are no legal repercussions for smelling bad at work. However, sume-hara has been known to affect workplace performance and employee well-being, and companies are starting to take notice.
Smells like trouble
According to Kotobank, the wasei-eigo term smell harassment most likely started circulating around 2010. Perfect Perio, a company behind a periodontal bactericide developed in 2005, ran a survey in which 90% said people at work were concerned…
