Well, maskless, argumentative tourists have already begun.

17 comments

1. >Just in Kamakura

   Those are military/SOFA not tourists.

2. Well, technically speaking, there isn’t a mask mandate (nor has there ever been one) in Japan, so they can do as they please.

   Hotels may legally be able to refuse service to those without masks, but that makes little sense to me, since you’re not really interacting with people at a hotel, compared to a shop or restaurant.

3. Boarders(Borders haha thanks for the catch below) haven’t opened and we don’t need to wear them outside per the government. Inside they should have shown some courtesy. I’ve had more and more Japanese inside the train not wearing one so could be a human thing….

4. Be careful with quoting statistics based on anecdotal evidence. There will be some road bumps, although we shouldn’t worry and leave it up to businesses and authorities to handle these situations.

5. Have the same feeling. There’s already plenty of meiwaku “business tourists” in town since a few weeks, plus the real thing will start next week. Personally decided to keep wearing a mask outside just to differentiate myself a bit lol.

6. Yeah.

   And more than likely, the Japanese people are going to see one foreigner do it and say “welp, that is all foreigners”.

7. The official rule is: outside, not around people, not in store = no mask.

   Inside a building, inside stores, train = mask on.

   I only wear mask when inside shopping, stores, or trains.
   I don’t wear them outside anymore, and so does a bunch of japanese people.

8. The borders haven’t even actually opened yet dude lol

9. I have seen a couple of japanese going maskless in stores.
   Saw one asking the retail staff for an item.
   No one asked them to put on a mask.
   Wondering if staff didn’t engage to avoid confrontation 🤔

10. I was just thinking about this. I’m flying to the US tomorrow for a month and JAL is requesting that everyone wear a mask on the flight. The flight coming back to Japan, presumably filled with Americans won’t be fun.

11. If they’re military, chances are they’re fine as the Naval base in Yokosuka has been SUUUUPEER strict on checking with that sort of thing. In fact, on Doubita Street almost all of them are going maskless simply because they followed uber-strict protocals on vaccinations and the like. If there was a threat of another outbreak, you wouldn’t see them at all as the base would put the whole base on restriction and no one would be allowed to leave.

    While this isn’t a guaranteed rule for ALL Americans over here, the general rule for military is if you see them out, they’re basically safe. Its when you DON’T see them that you need to worry.

12. Great news. Perhaps this will give the Japanese the courage to ditch masks.

13. What if they are vaxed and double boosted?

14. I am seeing a variety of things. One thing being posts on Reddit singling out “white guys” or “Americans”. Actually though we don’t have a heck of alot of either around where I live, so my observations:

    * Kids (almost exclusively Japanese around here) are often not wearing masks inside anymore and if they do, they are doing “hana mask”. In fact, I was on the train the other day and saw my child with his mask down off his nose and told him to wear properly. I look next to him and some other kid was doing the same thing.
    * Adults doing hana mask on the train – seems to be particularly men
    * Occasionally seeing people walk into stores without a mask on. I was pretty shocked the other day when I saw a 20-something Asian girl walk into 7-11 without a mask. Later she was in front of me in line and a mask appeared, but it was on her chin, so I suspect she knew what she was doing might upset the staff and had it ready for show.

    I still follow the rules, but I think we are eventually going to need to get to a place where we live with COVID. It won’t be this year. I’m guessing next Spring.

15. No mask. You mean like everywhere else in the world except Japan? Don’t follow the rule if the rule is dumb. Not to mention, there is no rule.

16. Masks should absolutely be worn indoors, especially by visitors, but I’ve seen tons of Japanese geezers and ladies wearing masks outside in 100F heat this summer, which is just insane.

17. It’s American culture. It breeds selfish, self-centered people who believe they are entitled to do as they please whenever they want, wherever they want without being impeded by anyone else regardless of how their behavior might affect others.