Proponents of seeing women without adequate butt-clothing, rejoice, for another incarnation thereof is emergent in Japan. It's not new, per se, as Japan Probe points out: fundoshi are traditional men's loincloths, usually seen these days on gentlemen prancing about at traditional events, and as such are not the kind of thing you'd expect to see hawked to women. Back in February, though, actress Saya Takagi mentioned on a talk show that she habitually wore them, and the nationwide "Bwuh?" effect has translated to a lot of attention from both sexes.

In case you didn't think ladies were being targeted, the name kills all doubt: they're "pendre shorts," from a French verb meaning "to hang"; if there's a cheap 'n easy way to sexify your product in the Japanese mind, it's to put anything even vaguely French in its name. I'm not sure why, precisely, but the Japanese associate France with beauty and elegance the way Americans associate any product with the letter X on it with mysteriously awesome coolness of awesome mystery, and buy accordingly.

Cynicism and ass-floss jokes aside, though, this kind of underwear does seem like a good idea. Not only does the design restrict your Stuff considerably less than elastic-waisted store pantsu - did anyone else ever use that word in Japanese class thinking it meant "pants"? - but natural fabrics tend to breathe quite well in humid Japanese summers, plus some of the designs are downright cute. I'm not sure about company Love Supplements claiming that their special material emits far-infrared rays to improve the human body vibrations and relieve various of specifically womens’ health problems, but it can't hurt!