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Over 40 percent of Japanese high school girls say their dads smell bad in survey

Casey Baseel Jun 16, 2017
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Daughters also displeased with messy hair, flabby physiques of fathers.

Just as it does in the U.S., Father’s Day falls on June 18 in Japan this year. And while many loving children will be taking the opportunity to show their appreciation, it seems that a number of high school girls would also like their dads to know they stink.

Japanese clothing company Uniqlo polled female high school students who live in the same home as their fathers, asking what they thought of Dear Old Dad’s grooming and hygiene, collecting answers from 200 respondents. Also included in the study was the query “Do you like your dad?” to which only fewer than one in three answered with an unqualified “yes.”

● Do you like your dad?
Yes: 31.5 percent
Sort of: 47 percent
Not so much: 16.5 percent
No: 5 percent

With such blunt honesty involved, it’s no surprise that the daughters didn’t use kid gloves in evaluating their fathers’ hygiene. 23.5 percent said there’s a regular aspect to their fathers’ appearance or grooming they’d like them to fix, with another 26.5 percent saying that such issues pop up periodically. Let’s take a look at the specific complaints (respondents were allowed to make multiple selections):

6. I want my dad to wear an undershirt (14.5 percent of respondents)

No specification was made as to whether this was meant to prevent the sight of sweaty armpits or protruding nipples.

5. I want him to fix his bed head/comb his hair (21.5 percent)

In Japan it’s customary to shower at night before going to sleep, but no morning shampoo can make hair styling difficult and leave one’s locks matted and messy from a full night’s slumber.

4. I want him to do something about his sweatiness (27 percent)

The response didn’t differentiate between whether something should be done to prevent sweating in the first place or to clean up after the perspiration occurs, but either way, the girls in this group want some action to be taken.

3. I want him to wear stylish clothes (34 percent)

Salarymen are pretty much locked into wearing a dark-colored suit and light-colored dress shirt five days a week, but some of their offspring still think there’s room for stylish flair in their seven-day wardrobe.

2. I want him to work on his physique (36 percent)

Even if Mom doesn’t mind Dad putting on a few pounds as he gets older, more than a third of the daughters Uniqlo got responses from are less lenient on lard.

1. I want him to do something about his body odor (41.5 percent)

Finally, atop the list of grievances is B.O., which has been a common complaint about middle-aged men (i.e. men of the age likely to have teen daughters) for a long time in Japan. Multiple generations of fathers have been heartbroken when their teen daughters announce “I don’t want my laundry and Dad’s laundry to be washed together because he smells!” and it looks like a lot of the current group of fathers should brace themselves to hear those words.

On the bright side, 27.5 percent of the high school girls who took part in Uniqlo’s survey said “My dad is fine just the way he is,” meaning that some of Japan’s dads are freshly showered, neatly groomed, and possibly have plastic bottles under their armpits.

Source: Biglobe News via Otakomu, PR Times
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2)

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s glad his dad taught him the importance of good hygiene and knowing how to drive a manual transmission.