Do you smell? Japanese entrepreneur's T-shirt will tell you
With complaints of "smell harassment" increasing in Japan's workplaces, an entrepreneur who battled his own odour demons has launched a new service to determine just how badly a person smells.
Shota Ishida set up Odorate Co. in 2019 and is launching a new home-use kit at the end of January that measures a person's body odour, determines what is causing the problem and provides potential remedies. And a person's smell goes well beyond failing to regularly take a shower, the company emphasises.
"When I was a student, there were times when I had to sleep at my laboratory and I suddenly sensed that maybe I smelled," Ishida said in a statement. "I was worried what people thought of me and I kept trying over-the-counter personal care products, but I was never sure that they were effective."
Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.
In the end, Ishida plucked up the courage to ask a colleague if people were steering clear of him because he smelled, but was relieved to hear that nobody thought he needed to freshen up more regularly.
"I realised that I was being too sensitive and my anxiety gradually diminished, but I also realised that the psychological barriers to asking an acquaintance if you have body odour are very high," he said.
Ishida's company sends out - in plain packaging, to avoid embarrassment - a box that contains a plain white T-shirt to which the user attaches eight odour absorbent patches. The patches are placed in the armpits, at the neck and on the back and the user must wear the shirt for 24 hours before posting it back to Odorate.
Technicians analyse the smell that has accumulated on the patches and rank the level of the unpleasant odour on a scale or one to five. The tests also determine the levels of 25 chemicals in the human body that are linked to the secretion of body odour and their causes, such as those present in alcohol or particularly pungent foods.
The analysis also describes the type of smell, such as sour, and the distance at which is detectable to other people, before providing a list of possible countermeasures, including details on the most appropriate ways to wash clothes and the frequency of a bath or shower.
The test costs 15,000 yen (US$144.47), including the delivery fee, and Ishida said he has already had more than 1,000 people sign up for the service, with more taking part in the company's in-person consultations.
Odorate clients are both male and female, although a majority seem to be middle-aged men who are concerned about upsetting colleagues in the workplace with a bad smell. In testimony provided by one user of Ishida's test, a 40-something man from Tokyo said he was "relieved" that the test had indicated no major odour problem, adding, "I feel more confident that I can now take a crowded lift in my company."
Ironically, in the same way that he was previously concerned about his scent, Ishida said most people do not have a problem with body odour and are being too sensitive - with the test simply serving to reassure them that they are not offending those around them.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2021. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
