Is It Rude to Wear Perfume in Japan? Japanese Commenters Say a Light Touch Is Just Right

What Japanese people said — picked from the top 200 of 243 comments

• It went from "putting on perfume" to "wearing a scent," didn't it.

  「香水をつける」から「香りをまとう」になりましたね

  — @sakurasakura2460 likes

• Japan is hot and humid, you know. Don't overdo it, just a subtle touch is right.

  日本は高温多湿だからな つけ過ぎず さり気なくくらいがちょうどいい

  — @煮汁-s2c41 likes

• The year-two or year-three way of putting it on is such a relief... Once on a bus there was a foreigner who'd put it on the year-one way, and I got perfume-sick and felt really ill 😅

  2年目か3年目くらいの香水の付け方めちゃくちゃ有り難い…前にバスで香水1年目のかけ方してる外国人いてめちゃくちゃ香水酔いして具合悪くなったから😅

  — @イトウモモ-h6g141 likes

• Not just foreigners, everyone please do it the year-three way~. Please~.

  外国人に限らず、3年目の付け方にしてほしい〜。お願い〜。

  — @smilesmile675619 likes

• Japanese people's fabric softener is way harsher than perfume. The people using it go nose-blind to it, so they keep adding more 😢

  日本人は香水よりも柔軟剤がキツすぎる。 使ってる本人は匂いに麻痺してくるからまた量を増やすんだよね😢

  — @ao22251 likes

• I used to work the counter at a dry cleaner, and we were told to put items from overseas customers in a separate bag. The perfume had soaked completely into the clothes and would transfer to other customers' clothes...

  以前クリーニング屋の受付してたんですが、海外の方から預かったお品は別の袋に詰める指示受けてました。香水の香りが服に完全についちゃってて、他のお客様の服に移っちゃうもので…

  — @夢ノ屋408 likes

• The other day I stayed at a hotel in a tourist spot with lots of inbound visitors, and a foreign woman who came out of the hotel had an incredibly strong perfume. I could retrace the route she'd walked backwards, from the hotel's front garden to the lobby to the hallway...

  先日、インバウンド客の多い観光地のホテルに泊まった時に、ホテルから出てきた外国人女性がものすごーい香水の匂いで。ホテルの前庭からホテル内のロビー→廊下まで、彼女が歩いた道程を逆再生できました…

  — @Nina-ip1hy109 likes

• If someone who'd put it on the year-one way was on the train, I'd never sit next to them, even if the seat was empty...

  一年目のつけ方してる人が電車にいたら、隣席が空いてても絶対座らないと思う…。

  — @三浦上之0 likes

• Japan doesn't have many smells, so even one spray and you can tell, "Oh, that person's wearing perfume"!

  日本ってあまり匂いが少ないから1プッシュでも「あ、あの人香水つけてるな」って分かるよね！

  — @あい-s6l5x0 likes

• Workplaces that handle food ban perfume, and the strict ones even check for fabric softener smell 😅

  食品を扱っている職場は、香水禁止だし、厳しい所は柔軟剤の臭いもチェックされる😅

  — @inakappenyanko3 likes

• At a sushi restaurant, some foreign customers came into the booth next to us, and their perfume smelled really, really nice, but it was really, really strong, and I went "whoa" lol. Still, it smelled lovely, and they were really lovely people. So that's how much you put on for it to carry perfectly through a partition.

  お寿司屋さんでお隣のブースに来た外国の方の香水がとてもとても良い香りだったけど、とてもとても強く香っていて、はわぁ😂ってなった。 でも、とても良い匂いだったし、とても素敵な方々だった。 このくらい付けるから仕切りごしでも完壁に香るのね。

  — @にしむらろそ2 likes

• Perfume, like any fragrance, changes three times: top note, middle note, base note. Mixed with each person's own body scent, it becomes a scent that's the only one like it in the world. So if you put on too much, you lose the good of all three stages. Morning and evening, or twice a day, one spray is all you need 😊

  香水含め、香料には トップノート・ミドルノート・ラストノートという匂いの変化が3回あるんだけど 人それぞれにある体臭と香水が混ざることで 世界で1人だけの良い匂いになるんだよね。 だから、付けすぎるとその3段階の良さまでなくなっちゃうんだよね。 朝夕、または1日2回、ワンプッシュでいいのよ😊

  — @cherriblo-3-dayo_38 likes

• I spray it on my ankles so it wafts up softly.

  僕は足首にかけてふわっと香るようにしてる

  — @うえおあい-z9x4 likes

• The year-three way drips perfume on the floor and walls, so I do the year-two way: spray it on a tissue first, then put a little on my wrists or behind my ears.

  3年目のつけ方すると床や壁に香水が落ちるので、2年目の手首や耳の裏に、ティッシュに吹いてからちょっとつけるやり方してるなあ。

  — @ぽこぽこ猫ぱんち1 likes

Is it rude to wear perfume in Japan?

Not in itself; heavy perfume is what bothers people. Commenters' benchmark is a scent someone only notices up close, which a 7-like comment says is what Japan prefers. Food workplaces ban it outright, and one person notes that Japan has so few smells around that even a single spray gets noticed.

How much perfume should I wear in Japan?

Far less than you would at home. One commenter writes that they had always assumed perfume meant a single spray, and another says it should only be noticeable if someone gets very close. In Japan, one commenter adds, it usually goes on the wrists or ankles.

Do Japanese people complain about each other's scents too?

Yes, mostly about fabric softener. A 14-like comment calls strong softener smell "sumehara" (smell harassment), a 35-like one says perfume plus softener made an elevator unbearable, and another describes coworkers whose scent announces them from several meters away. The complaint is about strength, not about foreigners.

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