Cultural Difference From The West
Japanese boys and men are not generally embarrassed to dress in traditional thong-type wear that shows the buttocks, such as the Fundoshi (besides underwear, also used as swimsuit) or the sumo wrestling equivalent, mawashi.
The typically masculine Japanese idiom fundoshi o shimete kakaru (tighten your loincloth) means the same as the English phrase "roll up your sleeves" — in other words, get ready for some hard work. It is considered to be manly.
Men do not however wear fundoshi as everyday clothing. That would be seen as eccentric and distasteful. Fundoshi are mainly worn during special times, particularly when participating in Hadaka Matsuris. Even in February, the coldest month of the year, nearly 10,000 men will gather at Saidaiji Temple in Okayama wearing only fundoshi to participate in the festival in hopes of gaining luck for the entire year.
Read more about this topic: Fundoshi
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