Have We Won Acceptance of Kilts?

[GG]

No, a fully acceptance should mean that you could randomly choose between kilts and pants for job, for example, and that everyone should find it as natural as had you been in pants every day.

We are not there. But I think it is far easier to wear a kilt out and about in 2021 than it was in 2000. But that is not, because kilts as such have been better accepted, but because the society has changed and has become more tolerant in general. It has become widely accepted to be and look different, not just by wearing a kilt. You could, as a man, also wear a skirt or a dress. Or a pink hat and earrings and bracelets and metal rings in your tattooed nose or lips or wherever. And very few should look long enough at you to show any emotions.

It takes considerably more than just a kilt to really draw attention, I guess.

[OC Richard]

I find them all quietly respectful, polite and interested in their surroundings.

Yes Japanese are very interested in their surroundings.

I took a class called Cross-Cultural Communication. The teacher, an American, had lived for decades in Japan as a consultant to Japanese firms wishing to communicate more effectively with US firms. After he had become fluent in Japanese language and culture he flipped and worked for US firms wishing to communicate more effectively with Japanese firms.

He spoke of a thing called "context". He termed Japanese culture "high context", German low, and Americans somewhere in between. He had a number of amusing examples of the problems caused in meetings and advertising, with foreign firms getting the context level wrong.

In any case I've had Japanese visitors attend gatherings at my house several times, and it's fascinating how they will go around the house examining and discussing amongst themselves every photo, every book, every knick-knack. They are intent on absorbing as much context as possible.