Quoted By:
“From what I've observed as someone who has a boomer dad who is a native born and raised in Japan. Japanese seem to really dislike strong fragrances found in soap as well as having a belief that blisteringly hot (although not quite boiling) water is adequate in washing of anything, especially their hands and stuff. It's weird, I couldn't do it being US born/raised. Even their toothpastes don't smell/taste right. The lack of 'proper' soap is also my belief for why Japan and the people have a certain BO smell everywhere.”
Well, I would agree that strongly fragrant soaps of the kind common in the US are not so popular in Japan.
But I would have to disagree with the idea that near-boiling water is commonly seen as a an adequate substitute for soap. (Besides, in the case of public restrooms in Japan, many have only cold water from the tap, not hot, and certainly not blistering hot.)
Also, you don’t need strongly fragrant soap in order to be clean. If anything, from the time I first arrived in Japan in 1985 until now (living mostly in Japan for all that time)I noticed a distinct LACK of a “certain BO.” Maybe this was true once upon a time, but it hasn’t been the case for at least the past 30 years. Until this pandemic started, I had been riding crowded rush hour trains in Kanagawa and Tokyo most work days since 1991. So based upon my own first-hand experience, with all due respect to your dad, I have to disagree.
(My gf, Japanese and 37, when asked if hot water were considered a substitute for soap in Japan, reacted with incredulity. We have a combined 67 years of experience living here.)
