Stripping back to bare facts and naked truths about neo-nudism in Japan
Yasuyo works from home as an IT consultant, going out only when she
has to give a presentation or attend a meeting. She punctuates her
work with some vacuuming, cleaning and preparing meals. It's a life
like any other woman, except as AERA (8/7) notes, Yasuyo does
everything in the nude.
Yasuko is one of Japan's growing throng of neo-nudists, or newdists,
if you will. The nudist boom is being buffered by more celebrities
revealing they spend much of their private lives in their birthday
suits, the emergence of Ekoda-chan, a popular manga character whose
entire family goes naked to save on energy costs, and the mixi SNS,
which has over 1,000 members of its "naked families" group.
"I take off my panties and strip fully nude, which unconsciously seems
to bring me closer to what I'm really feeling, which in turn makes me
feel like I'm going to come up with productive thoughts," Yasuyo tells
AERA.
Earlier this year, a Californian IT company conducted a worldwide
survey, finding that about 10 percent of men and women who worked from
home did so while naked. And Japanese nudists are catching on, like
Satoshi, who runs an IT company.
"I'm more creative when I'm naked," he says. "When work is really
pressuring me, I head out naked onto my verandah and gaze out into the
distance while I think. Nakedness gives you a liberating feeling you
couldn't possibly expect to find in a corporate atmosphere and I think
there have been many occasions when it has directed me toward arriving
at a decent business plan."
Yu Natsumi, author of "Nuudo Raifu he no Shotai (Invitation to a Nude
Life)," and her family have been living a naturalist's lifestyle for
the past 20 years. She implores potential "newdists" to try out nudity
as a way to, well, buff up character.
"It can turn introverts into positive thinkers," she says. "Go to a
nudist beach overseas and there are all types there. By getting nude
with them, all your complexes are openly accepted and it feels like
you are freed by the experience. If you're nude every day, you're
being yourself in the rawest possible form and that seems to make
communication smoother."
Pshrink Rie Ueki is not surprised.
"Going nude is the most effective way to create a successful work
routine. Especially for those doing creative work, there's a need at
times to re-think the way you interpret things and stripping
everything off can be a good start toward achieving that," the
psychologist tells AERA. "Being naked is thrilling and that
stimulation can spark all sorts of good ideas."