Alright, this is a blatently titillating weblog entry, but having bumped into this article, I can’t but share it with others. According to contributing writer Cheryl Chow of the Mainichi Daily News (Japan), women eschewing panties are quite the trend in Tokyo. As she says in the introduction to the article: “Take a look around you. Do you see (or not see) how the young women have taken to prancing around the streets of Tokyo braless and pantiless?”

The article is pretty hilarious, I must say, with one woman saying “it gives her an odd sense of pleasure. When she’s at a loss for ideas, she knows it’s time to strip” while another “likens it to masturbation. ‘it’s thrilling’ she titters.” A third enjoys “the mild sexual titillation… Today she goes pantiless to the office twice a week. If she drops something on the floor, she teases the men by bending down so that she almost – but not quite – exposes her secret.”

And because you can’t possibly do anything fun without someone trying to throw a bucket of cold water on it, Chow quotes a gynecologist warning of the ‘dangers of getting a chill from over-exposure’, saying that going pantiless can lead to (ready for this?) stiff shoulders, bloating, disturbance of the parasympathetic nervous system (what the heck is that?), fatigue, listlessness, and even major depression.

I can see it now, women all over Japan laying on their futon mid-morning, sheet demurely covering their otherwise bra- and panti-less bodies, sluggishly saying “there’s no reason to live any more. I should never have stopped keeping myself warm and covered. Oh, woe is me…” Or maybe not. 🙂

Anyway, not to keep you in suspense, here’s the link to the article, and no, there aren’t any pictures!

It’s a safe bet that Victoria’s Secret isn’t going to be paying for more research on this topic too!