WIT Life #44: 水筒男子
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
暑中見舞い (shochuu mimai) or mid-summer greetings to everyone! I apologize for my absence, but I was traveling across the country for the past three weeks as an interpreter for a Japanese delegation participating in the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). My co-interpreter and I shared some wonderful adventures with this group that I will detail in a post soon to come.
First I would like to talk about the rage currently overtaking Japan: water bottle boys! As you probably know, the Japanese love to find trends and attach catchy names to them, thereby creating a stir. For example, in a previous post I mentioned the phenomenon of 草食男子 (soushoku danshi), “herbivorous men” who are cooperative, family-oriented and kind but not very aggressive when it comes to romance. This time around the trend is 水筒男子 (suitou danshi), or men who carry around their own bottles.
Manufacturers are coming up with a variety of masculine styles to appeal to this previously neglected market. One store in Tokyo revealed an almost doubling of its male bottle section since May, and it now offers 400 different types including stainless and transparent. The best sellers range from 1680 yen to 3444 yen, and the amount of male customers is said to have skyrocketed this summer. Perhaps this can be attributed to the shrinking or complete lack of traditional summer bonuses (As seen in the picture, in these tough economic times a suitou danshi is very often a bento boy as well).
The top reasons for this bottle boom among men were varied, but top of the list was to save money. One suitou danshi estimated that he saved anywhere from 6000-10,000 yen a month by switching to マイ水筒 （my suito) or his own bottle, based on the fact that he had previously purchased two plastic water bottles per day. Another reason was that carrying your own bottle allows you to drink what you want when you want, not being a slave to the offerings at the local conbini or your office kitchen (The fact that some offices are now charging 8 yen per paper cup to drink the communal coffee/tea was cited as an additional factor). Finally, being a suitou danshi give you some eco cache as you are doing something good for the environment.
Incidentally, another trend among men these days is とんがり靴 (tongari gutsu) or pointy-toed shoes. A shoe repair shop reported that while previously requests for heel and front sole work had been most common in the past, recently there has been a drastic increase in requests for work on the tip of the shoe. Though fashionable, evidently pointy-toed shoes tend to become easily scuffed when climbing stairs or by being stepped on by others in crowded trains. Although tongari gutsu adherents claim it makes them look taller, the verdict is out on what women think. Several interviewed expressed that they would not want the guy they were dating to wear them.
In more serious news, another story this morning featured the lack of awareness among Japanese women regarding breast cancer. Although mammograms do exist, there is a great lack of equipment as well as knowledge regarding the necessity of these exams. Insurance typically only provides coverage for those 40 and older, despite the fact that this type of cancer often strikes those in their 20s or 30s. Women commented that “even if I get a notice I don’t go” or that ” I think of it as something that happens to someone else.” In order to combat this, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has created a special headquarters for this issue and made a proclamation that by the end of 2011 they would like to improve the incredibly low current diagnostic rate of 20% to 50% (here in the States it is 80%).
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