Japan eases mask rules but few keen on change


In masks we trust: Commuters who are mostly masked waiting for traffic lights at a crossing in Shinjuku district of Tokyo on the first day of reduced mask requirements. — AFP

Tokyo: Japan’s government eased its mask guidelines, recommending them only on crowded trains and in hospitals or care homes, but there was little sign residents were keen to unmask.

Japan has never had a mask mandate, but residents have adhered to guidelines to wear them indoors and outside from the early days of the pandemic, and masks were common even pre-Covid during cold and hayfever seasons.

The country is one of the last places in Asia to end nationwide masking recommendations, and yesterday morning most commuters kept their faces covered, on trains and outdoors.

“I think I’ll keep wearing a mask for the moment,” 46-year-old Tatsuhiko Ohashi said on his way to work outside Tokyo’s busy Shinagawa station yesterday.

He still had “a bit of fear” of Covid-19 and worried that getting infected unknowingly would “risk inconveniencing people around me”.Japan avoided lockdowns and other harsh restrictions during the pandemic but still fared better than many countries, with 73,199 deaths in a population of more than 125 million.

Some observers have credited masks and other voluntary measures, along with strict border closures, with that relative success.

But the government has been keen to gradually return to normal, reopening the borders and seeking to stimulate the economy.

There were just over 7,000 Covid-19 cases reported nationwide on Sunday, and businesses have largely said they will leave it up to customers to decide whether to mask.

Hajime Yamaguchi, a professor of psychology at JF Oberlin University in Tokyo, said it was unlikely many Japanese would unmask quickly.

“The Japanese worry a lot about what other people think and fear being judged if they’re the first to take off their masks,” he said. — AFP

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