A man’s wrist – Japan’s male version of a strip of exposed thigh?

Casey Baseel

May 25, 2014

In general, men have a very simple formula they use when determining how much female skin they like to see on display: the more, the better. This of course leads to the corollary, even more skin = even better.

One notable exception to this, however, is Japan’s love of knee-high socks, which leave a small patch of skin on display them and the hem of the skirt. Known as zettai ryouiki, or “absolute territory,” it’s become such a cultural phenomenon that it’s led to the creation of a smartphone game and not one, but two special days celebrating the look.

Now, one Twitter user in Japan claims to have discovered the male version of zettai ryouiki.

First, let’s take a moment to confirm what female zettai ryouiki looks like.

▼ This absolutely qualifies.

Seeing as men spend relatively little time in hot-pants, skirts, and other upper thigh-revealing attire, zettai ryouiki doesn’t translate directly into men’s fashion. Instead, Twitter user Nakashima723 has proposed the following equivalents.

First, Nakashima points to a man’s wrist, when framed by the cuff of his shirt and glove, as being incredibly sexy. In particular, the artist says it is precisely the sinew and bone that give this part of the body its special appeal.

Nakashima goes on to offer even another choice for men’s zettai ryouiki, in the form of the space between the cuff of the pant leg and top edge of the shoe. So powerful is its appeal that even if you’re completely covering the area with socks, the tweeting fashion visionary says it still counts as zettai ryouiki.

Eager to see just how effective these visual cues would be, we put together a steamy photo shoot.

▼ Hello, ladies.

▼ And hello, any other ladies.

We realize the wrist in Nakashima’s illustration gets an extra dose of coolness from holding a pistol. Unfortunately, the official SoraNews24 company handgun is in the shop for repairs, so we had to make do with the deadliest instrument we had lying around.

▼ Have you seen what one of these babies can do to a couple of eggs?

We also tested out Nakashima’s footwear idea. We’re assuming that you can get a natural boost from your pheromones by wearing unwashed socks, but we didn’t want any of our fine readers fainting from the unbridled sensuousness/smell, so we slipped on a clean pair, and stood on some kitchen towels because we were worried about damaging the tatami matting.

Honestly, we didn’t feel any more attractive than we usually do, but that’s an unrealistically high standard. We guess time will tell if men’s zettai ryouiki is really a way to drive women wild, or a case of mistakenly-ascribed sexiness on par with Kinki University.