Japan’s relaxed mask guidelines not filtering through public

24 comments

1. Let people wear masks if they want to. Let people not wear masks if they want to. There is no law forcing behavior, and neither is there a govt policy encouraging it. Maybe the govt and “experts” should stop trying constantly control the public’s behavior and just leave people alone.

2. Good luck being a “dirty gaijin” with no mask in the train! Heck many don’t even want to sit next to you with mask…

3. I’ve actually seen more and more people ditch the masks lately, even indoors sometimes. I still wear mine though, I feel like I’d get stared at even more if I did it.

4. I live in Japan and have gone maskless in public every day recently w/o issue

5. It’s about 50/50 here in my city when I’m outside mask/mask less. Most bike riders aren’t wearing masks. I’ve seen people bordering trains massless as well as many parents picking their kids up from school without masks. Even some students coming to class without masks. The fatigue is definitely starting to set in. There’s a lot of peer rules based pressure and conformity in Japan(90% for good) but when choice is between common sense and heat stroke you are going to see a lot more common sense

6. I see a huge difference in the park I go jogging in. Used to be 99% masks on, even people exercising. Now maskers are mostly people just out for a light walk where all the joggers and such are unmasked.

7. Wait until they fall from heat exhaustion. They will learn. Nothing like reality to break the false doctrines. This heat wave is horrible

8. I never minded wearing masks. It even improved my life in many ways than before by using it daily. I mean it’s great that it’s optional now, but it doesn’t mean all of us want to take it off right away.

9. As an ESL teacher in Japan, I have to lower my mask to help students with mouth movement and formation to help with difficult sounds. Sometimes students need to see the mouth movements to understand. Once done, I put it back up.

   Outside, though, or when riding a bike, I don’t usually wear my mask unless I am passing a large group of people, and even then, I don’t wear my mask for bike riding. The only time is if I’m waiting for a crosswalk around a large group of people.
   I think in Iwate, that’s still pushing it, but I’m following the guidelines still.

10. Why do I have to take off my mask?

11. The better-looking your face is, the more likely you are to take off your mask, as I have noticed.

12. @lachalacha You are absurd. It’s not a crime to go maskless. There are COVID cases in Japan…but wtf is your point? There are cases of HIV in Japan, so everybody stop fucking? Think for yourself. Question authority. 11 years ago you would certainly have been one of the people saying, “Tokyo Denryoku says the reactors are under control! No meltdown!”

13. If they had Jesus, they wouldn’t need one.

14. They wear masks even before pandemic. This is their normal

15. So what are the chances of getting COVID and pass it to someone else and them or their relatives die?. If it is less than the chance of getting hit by a thunder then nobody should be using masks 😀 .

16. Most people here still wear them at all times, though I’ve seen a few more people without them when running or biking. Practice for a local festival started this month. The first week everyone wore masks, now maybe 3 do. It’ll be a very slow change I think.

17. With a sudden flu outbreak, I imagine they’re all eying this with great suspicion.

18. I don’t care about people wearing masks or not, but by god do I want cafes and restaurants to stop putting up those bullshit plastic dividers. Those likely never had much effect preventing spread and just instantly turn me off any place that has them.

19. I don’t wear a mask outside (usually riding bike), and make sure to wait 2 meters or so behind the crowd at any stop lights so I’m never close to other people. I do make sure to always wear masks indoors when shopping. But my Japanese family, and nearly all of my friends, do not wear masks during home visits.

    I’m personally of the camp that very long term mask wearing (2 years and counting now) is probably worse for your health than not (to be fair, I didn’t get sick often to begin with), so I mostly wear masks when I do to not make anyone else feel uncomfortable and to respect that other people have different opinions than me, which I feel is a very small consideration that’s easy to do.

20. Thank goodness they’re starting to lax things here.

    I mainly put on a mask to help other people feel more at-ease, but outdoors I always remove it. Especially now in the summer, I am DONE with that nonsense. But inside trains/work, it can be nice to wear to avoid smelling bad breath, getting away with yawning in meetings/class, etc.

    Even when the pandemic started I ran maskless, but it’s nice being able to do it without the stares haha

21. Watching recent videos of Tokyo streets it’s refreshing to actually see peoples faces. I guess that comes with them having had a few drinks, though.

22. Great for allergies, great for preventing colds and other illnesses, great for growing beards, great for concealing yawns and bad breath… I’m a convert.

23. My husband gets tested every week at work and if he’s positive he’ll have to take time of without pay. Until that changes we’re not taking any chances

24. I’m past thinking about what other people think, no way in hell I’m wearing a mask outside in this fucking heat.