When I first went to Japan, I forgot to bring deodorant with me. I thought that buying it would not be a problem, but for a whole month of traveling through many cities, I could not find this thing. And then the Japanese explained to me why. They were surprised with my problem and asked questions like “Is it true that foreigners smell? How do they smell?”. They had heard and read terrible things about that before. It turns out that many Asians are odorless, even with profuse sweating in hot climates, which is why deodorants are not sold everywhere.

There are different hypotheses on this subject - both about proper nutrition and about exceptional love for hygiene. But if you dig deeper, the main reason lies in the genes. More precisely, in the gene, the scientific name of which is ABCC11. So, Asians are lucky enough to have a variant of this gene in which there is practically no sweat, and the sweat that is still emitted has no smell. If one of the Japanese smells, then the doctors suggest having an operation to remove the sweat glands, this is considered a deviation and the insurance even pays for the treatment. There are few such people.

Of course, now deodorants are sold in Japan and other Asian countries. I don't know if they appeared in small towns. But this is rather a tribute to modernity and fashion, some Japanese women use deodorant to add smell and fashion, but functionally they do not need it. The Japanese don't smell, that's a fact.

In addition, many Japanese have a keen sense of smell. They smell Europeans a few meters away, and try to bypass them. They do not like strong smells of cosmetics. Therefore, Japanese cosmetics usually have a very light smell or no smell at all. After a year of living in Japan, I also learned to recognize foreigners by smell of strong perfume haha

Have you used Japanese deodorant? How long have you been looking for it?