There I was yesterday, heading to Twitter to research a story about an entirely different article, when suddenly I got distracted by a trending hashtag in complete Japanese. Curious, I clicked on it since it had a good bit of traction. Boy did I open up a can of worms I never knew existed. Apparently November 7th is annually recognized as nice tummy day in Japan with the official hashtag of #いいおなかの日. The beginning part symbolizes 11, the “o” sound makes the zero in 11/07, and the naka at the end sounds close to nana which is 7. At least that’s what I’ve been told. The whole thing translates to “nice tummy day”. And yes, it’s pretty much what it sounds like. The tag is all about sharing nice artwork or pictures of characters and people with sexy stomachs.

Now if you’re a bit of a curious person, you’re wondering how the hell this got started. From what I found it appears that it became an unofficial holiday in Japan thanks to the efforts of Takanashi Milk Products, a company that focuses on producing… well I guess the name tells you. They had hoped people would use the concept to share pictures of their nice slim tummies thanks to the fat reducing/digestive health properties of their yogurt line. Japan being Japan instead started to associate the idea with sharing pictures of hot ass artwork where the tummy is appealingly drawn. And so, the company's marketing campaign spiraled out of control into a pretty degenerate event. Ah, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well while we’re here we may as well see what people were sharing yesterday, right?

Alright I better not overload the server with a million pictures. The dedicated stomach searchers can easily look up the hashtag to see a ton more where that came from. Have you heard of this holiday before? Do tummies catch your attention in artwork or cosplay? Did this make you consider buying a Takanashi Milk Product (don’t worry I think I know the answer on that one)? Hit some cardio, eat healthy, and prepare for Nice Tummy Day 2024 in the comments below!