Perhaps it’s the nature of the beast, but we talk a lot about women’s bodies on this site. Mostly that’s because unwanted objectification – from posters to undergarments – is a problem in Japan. So it feels nice to get to turn the tables and talk about men’s bodies for a while. Particularly, I want to talk today about a problem that’s come to annoy Japanese women in recent years: men’s see-through summertime nipples.
Bring On The Heat, Take Off The Undershirt
The controversy started around 2015. This is about the same time that summertime temperatures in Japan began to climb from “insufferable” to “downright torturous” due to climate change.
The increasing heat has led to a few changes in how people live their daily lives. On a positive note, more men are using sun umbrellas ( 日傘; higasa), which has typically been an item only women used.
On a less positive note for some, men also began taking another tactic: taking off their undershirts.
Business culture in Japan can be strict. No matter how hot it is, no one in the corporate world’s showing up to work in shorts and a t-shirt. So men do whatever they can to stay cool. That primarily means walking around with no t-shirt underneath their dress shirt.
Of course, when men with no undershirt inevitably sweat in the summer heat, certain…things begin to show through. And that’s where the problems start.
See-Through Nipples: A Form of Sexual Harassment?
Men’s summertime nipples became a hot topic of conversation in 2015 thanks to a survey on Goo. The site asked women what fashion mistakes they found in inexcusable in men. The winner: 透け乳首 (suke chikubi), or “see-through nipples” peeking through men’s shirts[1].
Women who were interviewed later by the morning program ZIP![2] commented that men’s transparent nipples were “unpleasant.” Some even likened the sight to sexual harassment. (A lawyer writing on bengo4.com made clear that see-through nipples don’t meet Japan’s legal bar for sexual harassment.)
How big of a problem are see-through nipples? ZIP’s informal street survey of men found that around 1 in 10 are dressing in a way that will allow their nipples to show through. That’s bad news for hetero men in Japan: a full 84% of women said they’d be turned off if their boyfriend had see-through nipples.
A Problem That Keeps Standing Out
Flash-forward to 2019 and see-through nipples are still seeing as Japan’s worst male fashion faux pas. A multi-choice poll run by Rakuten ONET found see-through nipples the greatest male fashion mistake by a wide margin, at 58%. Other “NG” (no good) fashion debacles includes:
Colored shirts on which sweat stains show (25.5%)
Shirts that show off men’s muscles (21.7%)
Wearing a y-shirt with no overshirt (19.4%)
Strong cologne (16.6%)
Beach sandals with socks (15.4%)
Protruding stomachs (14.6%)
Tank tops (14.3%)
See-through undershirts in general (10.6%)
Not trimming superfluous hair (10.2%)[3]
So what are men in Japan to do? Besides simply wearing an undershirt that doesn’t see through, there are always nipple seals! The product is intended to cover those bothersome mammilla and obscure them from public view[4].
As an American, visible nipples isn’t something I would necessarily think of as a fashion problem. So this is something to keep in mind for non-Japanese men who live in and are visiting Japan. If you’re waltzing around in the punishing summer heat in a white t-shirt and notice you’re earning disgusted looks on the street…well, now you know why.
What to read next
Sources
[1] 女性が判定「男のNG夏ファッション」ワースト10 【2015年版】. Nikkan Spa
[2] 男性社員の「透け乳首」に女性から大ブーイング――不快に思われたら「セクハラ」？bengo4.com
[3] ありえない！女性が引く男性の「夏の身だしなみ」、ワキ汗より無理な1位はアレ. Cancam
[4] Amazon.jp
