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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?).
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I am going to agree with WingsToDiscovery on this.
It is one thing to wear a yukata as a sort of cultural experience thing... And another to just
wear a yukata - even if at a festival or the like. When there is a group of students wearing yukata, they`re going to be viewed as students taking part in some class of sorts. It isn`t quite the same as what would be considered "wearing" one.
For the cultural class sort of thing, you`re trying one on - not really wearing one.
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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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Because these things are excellent souvenirs, and they sell well? I don`t think it is that people don`t want anyone foreign to put them on - just that wearing them around in public is going to get a weird reaction.
The only situations where it appears to be completely accepted for a foreigner to wear traditional clothing is a wedding (when the bride or groom). There is no "try-it-on" cultural class feel to it, and the kimono itself has a strong enough traditional aspect to it that it is simply a traditional part of the wedding. If having a traditional Shinto-style wedding, wearing anything else would be unthinkable. In pretty much every other situation it is also normal to wear other clothing. (And the overwhelming majority does so.)