I’ve been searching through my photographs for crowd scenes in Japan. Here’s one at a Tokyo train station:
A woman, bottom right, is wearing a face mask. Perhaps she has a cold and wants to protect others, or maybe she’s protecting herself from airborne pathogens.
If you look more closely, you’ll find other people wearing masks. That’s the deal in Japan: in just about any crowd, or on Asian flights, you’ll spot masks.
Mask-wearing became ubiquitous in Japan during the 1918-1919 ‘flu pandemic. The wisdom of wearing masks was obvious, and the social convention has carried forward into the 21st century.
A year ago, while exploring parts of Japan, my husband, Dwight, developed a rather sniffly cold. This is to be expected: things happen when you travel. We were about to check in to a traditional inn where we would be served a multi-course meal in our room. We were concerned the staff would be uncomfortable with Dwight’s condition.
We popped into one of Japan’s amazing convenience stores to pick up a pack of disposable face masks. Until the cold abated, Dwight wore a mask whenever he was near people.
In Japan, when you wear a mask, you show empathy. A mask reduces the risk of transmission and signals to people to take extra care when they’re near you.
Adjusting for population, the death rate from Coronavirus in Japan is 2% of the rate in the USA. Fewer than 2,000 people have died of Covid in Japan, a country of 127 million. By contrast, almost 250,000 people have died of Covid in the USA, a country of 328 million. Several factors contribute to Japan’s success, including apolitical mask-wearing.
