Do you have a reference for this newspaper trivia? I've just mentioned this "butter smell" to a friend of mine who lives in Japan and got told that it's not a thing and that it doesn't exist.
"In Japan, butter is used as a symbol of the west, and the term 'batah-kusai' is used to represent western objects or the slavish imitation of western approaches."
(half-assed mediocre translation by me, there's probably a better way to translate 西洋かぶれ in particular)
FWIW, the word “batakusai” has become so ingrained in the language that one might not think of butter, the food topping, when you mention the word. (much like how you don’t always directly think of Jesus Christ specifically when you casually blurt out “Oh my god!”)
FWIW I never heard of that either, despite living in Japan on and off for a couple of years, marrying a Japanese woman, and being decent at Japanese
My guess is that it's just a 1960s meme that's fallen out of use
Actually, I've never seen or heard of any of the butter-related stuff.. Maybe those butter tools are a regional thing, or they're relatively unknown. I've never seen them on TV, and I couldn't find any butter dishes for sale when I was looking for one in Tokyo, so I ended up having to use a plastic box from the dollar store.
My in-laws were furious when I kept hiding butter in a tray outside of the fridge so it'd stay soft, and all their friends agreed with them that I was being a crazy foreign fool
Was it salted or unsalted butter? From experience it's mostly unsalted in Japan which shouldn't be left outside of the fridge.. Unless it's a big house and you go through it in a few days.
