Is Matching A Sign Of BFF?!

    My artifact is a keychain which shows bread being toasted. This one pictured not only toast, but also a small jar of honey and a butter knife. In addition, the toast is already covered with butter and honey. It looks delicious. Its color is mainly yellow. In detail, it consists of many yellows, browns, whites, blacks, and grays. It is made of plastic. It is about the size of a palm, larger than a ping-pong ball and smaller than a baseball.

    I first encountered my artifact on April 1, when I was a second-year high school student. On that day, I went to Bandai City with three friends I had made in my first year. It was the first time for me to go out with these members and I was very excited. We walked around the stores, and if something caught each other's attention, we all stopped and said, "This is so cute!" and so on. When we were at LOFT on the 6th floor, we were browsing the keychain section.

    One of friends suggested, "Why don't we buy the same key chain?"

    "That's nice! Sounds good! Let's buy!" said the others.

    Among the many keychains, the one that was for four people and our favorite was the one with the toast on it. I liked the onigiri pattern too, though. After we bought it, we each put that key chain on our bags to school, and I still put it on now that I am a college student.

    As an aside, all of those friends are away from Niigata now, and when I asked them about the keychains, two of them are at home and one of them still uses it.

    Therefore, these indicate that as they get to know each other better and we feel we are best friends forever (BFF), they tend to want to wear matching items.

    In this way we have come to wear matching. Wearing matching items is accepted in Japan, but not in other countries. The reason for this is the Japanese cultural disposition of not being able to say no when asked to do so. In Japan, there is a pervasive pressure to conform to the opinions of those around you, so to speak. In contrast, people in other countries tend to recognize differences as individuality.

    I did not feel much peer pressure at that time. Because from that time on I had a relationship with these girls where I could say anything to them. If I didn't like matching, I probably would have told them. But if they were not my friends, I would not have been able to say no even if I didn't want to.

    But now, the word "diversity" is becoming popular in Japan. Diversity means that there are many different kinds and tendencies. In other words, whether they are the same or different from others, we need to embrace them. Everyone has a different personality, and the best way to get along is to recognize that.

    Thank you for reading. If you have much time, please read below articles.

[Simple question] Do couples overseas do "matching coordinates"?

同調圧力 = Peer Pressure: 日本とアメリカの違い