Women will be allowed to participate in Japan’s ‘naked man’ festival next month for the first time in its 1,250-year history.
A group of 40 local women in Inazawa, in the country’s Aichi prefecture, will join the annual Hadaka Matsuri at the Konomiya shrine after petitioning organisers.
The event sees thousands of men strip down to loincloths and clash in a huge scrum as they fight to touch a completely naked man who is designated the shin-otoko or ‘god man’, in the hope that it will bring them good fortune for the new year.
