Japan was one of the very first countries to generalize the wearing of masks when the Covid-19 pandemic began. More than two years later, the situation seems not to have changed: the country remains very very cautious, even if it identifies daily two to three times fewer new cases than France. Not to mention that the population is well vaccinated, especially the elderly. Thus, both outside and inside, almost 100% of Japanese are permanently masked, including some of the children in kindergarten. They only remove it at home.
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The paradox is that the mask has never been legally compulsory anywhere, but everyone wears it everywhere. Not always cheerfully, as this elderly woman admits: “I can’t get used to it, it’s hard, I want to take it off, but, without a mask, everyone stares at us severely“, she regrets.
“Lax” and normalcy
It is that fear prevails over the rest, even for this octogenarian vaccinated three times: “I’m old, I’m afraid of the Covid. So I don’t go out without a mask, it’s not hard at all. I will even put it on once the pandemic is over.“And seeing on television the images of the French, British or Americans without masks, he has only one word:”Lax.”
And he is not the only one to think this in the archipelago, because many Japanese consider the mask to be necessary, no matter what. “The removal of the mask will take place when the Covid has disappeared. I don’t think that in Japan we will live with the Covid without a mask, I think that the very principle of removing the mask should not be decided“, thus assures the president of the Association of Doctors of Japan. His opinion, which the government follows for the moment, is however not shared by the whole of the medical profession because the mask presents risks especially in summer when the moist heat is unbearable and for the development of young children who, apart from their parents, have only seen half-hidden faces for two years.
However, it must be recognized that public opinion is not protesting against the wearing of masks. Some consider, on the contrary, that it does them a good service, sometimes for completely futile reasons: thanks to the mask, there is no need to wear makeup or shave. The mask was already very present in Japanese society before the Covid, in the face of the flu or pollen allergies, but now it has become normality and in part risks remaining so.