Scantily clad spokesmen in Shibuya also help give a second chance to juvenile delinquents.

“Eclectic” would be a pretty good way to describe the fashion landscape in Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya district. With a mix of fancy department stores, back-alley thrift shops, and just about everything in between, there’s so much variety that it can actually be kind of hard to put together an outfit that stands out when you’re walking along Shibuya’s crowded streets.

Unless, that is, you’re dressed in nothing more than a fundoshi, or traditional Japanese loincloth.

While most guys in Japan opt for boxers, briefs, or the compromise of boxer briefs, in 2016 a pair of University of Tokyo graduate students decided to start Fundoshibu (“Loincloth Club”), a company that produces and sells loincloths online. Loincloths haven’t been the go-to undergarment in Japan for over a hundred years, though, so Fundoshibu’s marketing efforts include promotional events where company representatives proudly wear Fundoshibu’s wares.

One periodic event that’s been getting a lot of attention is Fundoshibu’s trash pick-up project along Shibuya’s Center Gai, one of its busiest streets which also sees an unusual amount of litter for ordinarily clean-and-shiny Tokyo. But Fundoshibu director Takashi Noda says the project is about more than drumming up publicity for his company. “If we were going to be attracting attention, we didn’t want to do something just for ourselves, but something good for society.”

It’s not just the Shibuya streets that benefit from the fundoshi trash pick-up either. Mixed in with Fundoshibu employees are members of Hassyadai, an organization that seeks to help yankees (juvenile delinquents and ne’er-do-wells) who are looking for avenues to transition to more productive roles in society through internship, counseling, and share house services.

Because really, there’s nothing like a breezy loincloth to breathe fresh life into wayward youths.

Related: Fundoshibu, Hassyadai
Source: IT Media, Fundoshibu
Featured image: Twitter/@MaedaTaisonDES

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he can’t remember the last time he head the word “gird” used for anything other than “loins.”