To Tumble or Not? In Japan, Hang Drying Reigns Supreme


How do you dry your clothes? For many around the world, the answer is easy: outside. For most Americans, it’s the opposite: the drying machine remains king. So what faction does Japan belong to?

Waiting for sunlight

The sight of clothes drying outside on clotheslines or drying racks is quite common in Japan. It’s also normal in China and European countries like Italy and Germany.

In the US, air drying is surprisingly a point of contention, if not outright prohibited in certain states. Due in part to 1960s marketing campaigns espousing the social value of owning a dryer, clotheslines or hanging clothes outside to dry is erroneously associated with poverty and poor aesthetics.

Not so in Japan. Hang-drying is so common that websites like Tenki.jp maintain a handy laundry index (洗濯指数; sentaku shisuu) gauging how optimal the weather is for hang-drying clothes outside.

A laundry index for the Tokyo Metro area. (Source: Tenki.jp)

Laundry habits are one of those cultural things you don’t really think about until you’re in another country. Esse Online spoke with Noriko, who moved to Seattle from Japan over a decade ago, about the culture shock she experienced learning how to use a dryer.

At first, she still used drying hangers (物干しハンガー; monohoshi hangaa) as is common in Japan. As she bought more clothes, the hangers became too cumbersome to use, so now she only uses the dryer and swears by it.

“Whenever I return to Japan, I have to do my laundry the Japanese way at my parent’s house since they don’t have a dryer, and I sweat like crazy during the summer drying and taking the clothes inside,” she writes. “Depending on the season, doing that may cause allergies from pollen and such. A dryer eliminates all those problems at once. [1]”

Noriko may be on to something there. Hay fever, dubbed the national illness of Japan, affects thousands every year, fueled by pollen from Japanese cedar trees. One can’t help but wonder if there’s a plausible link between hang-drying clothes and bedding outside and the prevalence of hay fever and other allergies.

Efficient and Economical

Room drying (部屋干し)
Picture: kouchan / PIXTA(ピクスタ)

Dryers are becoming more ubiquitous in Japan since the first model hit stores in 1969, but hang-drying remains the norm. 70% of participants in a 2019 survey on laundry habits dry their clothes outside, with only 9% using dryers [2]. In another survey, 60% choose to hang-dry their clothes inside on rainy days rather than use the dryer [3].

In an informal poll on our Twitter account of people living in Japan, 66.1% have no dryer in their homes. Some commented that they use the drying mode on their bathroom ventilation system to dry their clothes. However, it seems drying results vary.

There’s no room!

Laundry tag
Picture: Shinji / PIXTA(ピクスタ)

Two reasons many opt out of owning dryers are space and cost efficiency. A washer is necessary, or better yet, a combined washer-dryer unit. But a dryer on top of that, even literally, can take up too much space. Not to mention it’s a drain on the electric bill.

Dryers in Japan may be far smaller than their American counterparts. However, with little space to play around with in most Japanese apartments, economizing space by opting out of a dryer seems the most logical choice.

Time is another reason many hang-dry their laundry. According to an Esse Online survey, 39.9% said using the dryer takes too much time. 48.6% prefer drying their clothes in the sunlight, and 47.1% complained that dryers don’t dry their clothes well [4].

Depending on the weather, drying outside is far more time-efficient. While by no means exclusive to Japan, there’s also the belief that direct sunlight acts as a natural disinfectant on clothes and bedding. That’s why you often see futon draped over balcony railings to air out. Of course, depending on the humidity, this can do more harm than good.

Overall, having a dryer in Japan seems more of a luxury item than a necessity or cultural mainstay. The large tumble dryer may reign supreme in American households. But it doesn’t seem like they’ll catch on in Japan anytime soon.

What to read next

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Sources

[1] アメリカと日本でこんなに違う洗濯事情。「干さない」習慣のメリットデメリット. Esse Online.

[2] FromプラネットVol.110<洗濯に関する意識調査>. PR Times.

[3] 洗濯乾燥機で「乾燥機能」を使わないのは何割? 衣類乾燥機を使った感想は?【洗濯・乾燥の実態調査】【東京ガス都市生活研究所】. Tokyo Gas.

[4] 2000人の洗濯機事情。「乾燥機能があるのに使っていない人」がじつは多かった. Esse Online.



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