The Skinship reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004
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Skinship

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Skinship (スキンシップ) is a Japanese word with obvious English root origins coined in Japan, initially to describe the closeness between a mother and her child due to the physical contact of their naked skin. Contemporary use of the word includes the close relationship that develops between friends or coworkers when they share their nakedness at a public bathhouse, known as a onsen or a sento depending on the type, stripping away the social construct that would otherwise differentiate them as boss and employee or senior and junior. The earliest citation of this word appears in Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, 1971.

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