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Originally Posted by MMM
I find it difficult to believe that nearly 100% of Japanese are put off by foreigners wearing yukata during the summer (I assume at festivals and the like, and not like wearing a yukata to school, right?).
I am curious how the question was asked and who was responding.
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The main demographic were younger, university age students, with the next being older. We wanted a response from the younger generation to compare to the older generation to hopefully try and find a progressive trend.
The yukata was one example, but it's really not hard to believe in my opinion. The question was simply along the lines of "What do you think of foreigners who partake in the wearing of (yukata) and other traditional Japanese clothing?" And this wasn't the only question asked, as I said before; there was more research behind this. Anyway, most of the responses came down to the fact that the people we asked felt like many foreigners don't really understand the spirit of the culture and things like matsuri, and while they appreciated the effort, they felt like it was something better observed from afar. To do something like wear yukata to them was simply,
foreign.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
Any walk through the airport or around temples will show traditional Japanese gifts and garb marketed directly to English-speaking buyers. Why would they do that if they didn't want foreigners to buy the stuff?
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You should know this is simply commercialism at it's finest. They're not going to completely alienate a group and miss out on sales, and potentially even more tourism. This kind of practice happens all over the world.