Deodorant and Japan

Now with a title like that you are probably wondering what the heck is this blog post about or where are we going with this. Well last weekend I went looking for to buy deodorant because I was almost out and did not think that people in the lab would appreciate me going without deodorant for a couple of weeks. So I went to a drug store to look for deodorant. No dice. I went to another drug store and a supermarket and still no deodorant. The second supermarket did finally have some, however only a roll-on and a spray-on deodorant. For contrast think back to the last time you went to a supermarket and think about how many different varieties that they had for deodorant. Granted the supermarkets in japan are not huge but you could definitely call the second one a small to medium sized supermarket by American standards.

I will admit that I might have missed the deodorant in the other stores because I was looking for in the wrong place or looking for the wrong thing. But still next time you come to Japan and have left the airport you are going to probably have a hard time finding deodorant.

I asked one Japanese member of my lab who had spent 1 year in the US if he knew what deodorant was but he thought of it in terms of perfume. So basically it is not used very often here.

On the contrary you would be surprised by the number of facial creams and hair products for men that you can find here. I should find the Time article about that.