The Japanese are a bit special. Japan is hot and humid, and traditionally a lot of the labour would get you wet. It was not uncommon for Japanese men and women

The Japanese are a bit special. Japan is hot and humid, and traditionally a lot of the labour would get you wet. It was not uncommon for Japanese men and women to work the fields, or catch fish, naked or nearly naked. In fact, some early Western visitors commented as such. The perceived Japanese sense of modesty and prudeness is a relative new phenomenon, instigated after WW2 by American prudeness.