Japan wins for subtle body scents

One of the biggest reverse culture shocks I am experiencing while traveling in Europe is the unescapable smells of perfume and body scents of various kinds. I wrote before about "sumehara", smell harassment, in Japan, and to be honest at this point I wish it was a thing in Europe!

Almost everybody seems to wear perfume or body scent in my home country and the other countries I have visited in Europe recently. That in itself is not the problem, its how potent it has become since I last lived here. The perfume and body scents of today are really strong. When you get onto a bus or train you are accosted by an army of scents. Its so strong that even when you walk outdoors in the open air you get the waft of people as far as twenty meters away. 

I have become quite accustomed to the Japanese way of avoiding strong smelling perfume and body scents and I even use an unscented deodorant. My children have also noticed how strong the scents are here and it even made one of them nauseous on a bus trip! Have you noticed more potency in perfume and body scents when you travel outside of Japan?