Faced with Covid-19, Japan unmasks itself… halfway

In her shop, which smells of lilies, jasmine flowers and roses, the old florist continues to wear her mask and is still worried. “Oh, I know it’s become optional, she says, but I’m still scared by some customers who come into my store without their mask because I’m old and I’m afraid of being contaminated. »

Four days after authorities largely eased recommendations to wear face masks to avoid contracting Covid-19 or infecting someone, a large majority of Japanese still fear unmasking, even on the streets and outdoors. .

In Japan, wearing a mask has never been compulsory

Japanese paradox, wearing a mask has never been compulsory since the Covid-19 epidemic came from China at the beginning of 2020. But 100% of Japanese people have been wearing it for more than three years, outside, in transport, shops, schools or theaters and cinemas. Despite repeated statements from the government explaining for several months that it was no longer necessary outside. Japan has recorded some 73,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic for a population of 125 million – a lower toll than many other countries, which some have attributed to widespread mask-wearing and prolonged lockdowns. borders of the archipelago.

Since the announcement of the reduced recommendations on Monday March 13, a very large proportion of Japanese people still wear it outside, with the exception of some young people or others who wear it under their noses. But the symbolism, even halfway, remains important. Social pressure remains fundamentally dissuasive.

The mask business

“I am sure that the epidemic is behind us, because we are practically all vaccinated, explains Sayaka, employee in the digital marketing of an IT company, but I cannot bring myself to remove it for good… I am not afraid of the virus but of the gaze of others. “As long as no clear and definitive order comes from above on the obligatory lifting of the mask, it will not disappear from the faces which seem to have become accustomed. Like a second skin. “I’m going to keep it because for three years no one has seen my skin defects or my pimples, recently confided a young executive assistant working in a large bank in central Tokyo. I can hide behind my mask. »

In drugstores or pharmacies, entire shelves offer a huge variety of masks: white, black, yellow, pink… in fabric, foam, cotton… For adults and children. The mask business has become an even bigger market than in the past. Several brands broadcast daily advertising messages on television or radio. Advertising posters are legion in the streets, undergrounds and metro cars. Already present in the archipelago before the pandemic, especially during periods of seasonal flu or pollen allergies, as currently, the surgical mask against Covid-19 has exploded a market which amounts to hundreds of millions of euros today.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has announced its intention to lower the medical classification of Covid-19 to the same level as seasonal flu, instead of the current category where it rubs shoulders with tuberculosis and sars. This change, along with the easing of some other restrictions, is to take place after the annual holiday period, at the beginning of May, of “Golden Week”, during which very many Japanese people travel abroad and throughout Japan. The masks will fall, perhaps completely, from the month of May.

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