A month after giving people the personal choice to use masks, AI study shows little reduction in mask wearers around Tokyo Station (down to 85.6% from 89.7%)
A month after giving people the personal choice to use masks, AI study shows little reduction in mask wearers around Tokyo Station (down to 85.6% from 89.7%)
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DeepL translation because I can’t be bothered to do it myself:
>Mask “individual decision” will soon be a month old… and the rate of wearing masks has not decreased significantly, according to AI analysis of footage from in front of Tokyo Station.
>It has been almost one month since the wearing of masks as a measure against new coronas was left to individual decision-making. We found that the number of people wearing masks has not decreased significantly.
>The government policy on the wearing of masks has basically been “left to individual judgment” since 13th of last month. Analysis of footage from in front of Tokyo Station on that day, using AI developed by NTV, showed that 89.7% of people were wearing masks.
>Analysis of footage from the same day and time on the 10th, approximately one month later, showed that 85.6% were wearing masks, a decrease of 4.1 percentage points, but almost unchanged, indicating that the proportion of people wearing masks in front of Tokyo Station has not decreased significantly over the past month.
This is likely to be due to factors such as the fact that the number of new cases of coronas in Tokyo is again on the rise.
When the new policy was introduced, many users on this sub thought people would “finally come to their senses” and dump the masks once given the chance. The actual numbers tell another story, however.
I have no issue with wearing a mask if I was asked to, even though I personally feel it’s not really that necessary anymore, due to the symptoms becoming more and more mild, having vaccines very regularly available, and variants becoming less likely to cause further complications. Plus, it seems pretty redundant, at least where I live.
I make sure to get tested if I feel unwell, and I let people know to keep their distance, just as a common courtesy. I also make sure to avoid vulnerable people, who are the ones who would get the worst of Covid.
I haven’t had it yet, or rather, I’ve never had symptoms that turned out to be Covid!
Anyways, I digress.
What I wanted to say was that due to the way society works in Japan, people likely don’t want to be “that guy” not wearing a mask, and feel as if they are the ones who aren’t apart of the norm.
People may feel alienated if they decide not to wear a mask, despite being told by the government that it is no longer necessary. That’s not fair in the slightest.
I will add, I can’t confirm this. But my basic understanding of Japanese society (it’s not much!) is that this may be a thing that would occur.
It can take a lot to change something that has been built into our way of thinking, and I wonder if it’s even Covid that is making people wear masks now? I feel, and again, please correct me if you feel I’m wrong here, it’s more of a society thing.
I’d love to discuss this with people, it would be a really interesting topic to talk about, I bet!
I’m glad that people still wear masks in Tokyo. First family trip we’ve ever been in with zero sickness over 3weeks. Yay Japan!
In other news, the sky is blue.
Rest 13% is mostly American and Chinese tourists.
very interesting to observe the obedience with masks but not with helmets on bicycles. Even tho it is the rule now. Even funnier if people who ride bicycles wear a mask but not a helmet. Then you just understand that masks were never about health
During daytime, in places like supermarkets and malls, it’s still 95% masking around here, down from 100%. Maybe I’ll see one dude not wearing a mask (when before this month it I never once saw a person without a mask in a mall or supermarket who wasn’t sitting down and eating).
But the change in the evening is pretty stark. I go to the convenience store at like 10 PM and almost nobody is wearing a mask, at the 24-hour MaxValu supermarket at night maybe only 50% of people are wearing masks.
Tokyo station is extremely busy, and people are coming in on densely packed trains. It makes all the sense in the world that mask use wouldn’t be highly reduced in this particular area because it’s literally the third most likely area in Tokyo (after Shinjuku and Shibuya) where someoe inclined to wear a mask would choose to still wear a mask.
Things aren’t going to change drastically unless there’s a clear indication that masks are detrimental to most people’s health. People are just not in a big hurry to take their masks off. We have to stop making it a political issue
Undoubtedly most people are still wearing masks, but taking the sample from outside a train station would surely skew the data. The train is the only place I still wear a mask.
Wearing a medical mask has always been somewhat commonplace in Japan and long before Covid. It’s not a stigmatized political issue and has never bothered me to wear one or see others wearing them.
It is definitely changing slowly and will take time to return to normal. At some point it will hit a tipping point and everyone will feel comfortable not wearing a mask again.
I walk past a school most mornings and noticed the teachers outside were not wearing a mask and about a third of the children too. A week ago it was 100% masked up. Progress!
I mean, the train station is a heavily skewed place to do this kind of survey. Trains are going to be one of the strongest holdouts for maskwearing due to the crowding in small spaces.
Plus, this is Tokyo Station, where there’s a lot of white-collar businesses. People are going to be more inclined to dress prim and proper, including mask wearing.
Plus, we’re still in the thick of hayfever season right now. The sugi type has calmed down but the hinoki type is still in full swing. And while it’s warming up, the weather isn’t yet so warm that masks are uncomfortable to wear.
Mask wearing is way down. Went to futako Tamagawa over the weekend and it was nearly 50/50. Even some restaurant staff were 50/50.
At my child’s entrance ceremony yesterday, half the teachers were maskless and about a quarter of the adults. This is a dramatic shift from even a month ago. (Located in Tokyo; rural areas are likely to be slower in removing their masks)
COVID is still a class 2 infection in Japan. Those with us who have kids are likely to still mask as the quarantine periods are still long (5 days after a +ve test, not onset of symptoms). Annoyingly some work places have stopped giving extra sick days for COVID so some people are likely trying to avoid infection until the classification become level 5 like influenza.
After Golden week, I think we might see the great unmasking.
The majority of the kids in my classes have stopped wearing masks. I’ve been seeing more people not wearing masks now that it’s getting warmer.
What a weird place to do this. It makes sense to continue wearing masks on trains. There are other illnesses besides covid that people would prefer to avoid.
My wife (Japanese) says she still wears a mask out of habit. To her it’s like putting on a jacket. She forgets she’s wearing one half the time. Only time she notices is when we’re out together because I don’t wear a mask anymore.
Seems like a decent number of folks still wear masks because it’s the current norm. No one wants to stand out
I wonder what this will do to average life expectancy. Less colds and flu over a lifetime has got to be good for you.
It’s around 50/50 at my university
Let’s also bear in mind that it’s still hay fever season and there’s a huge amount of yellow sand dropping on us now.