Posted on 05/15/2019 6:20:06 AM PDT by mowowie
I see these people everywhere in pics and in person.
1. If Japanese people have colds or other illness they’ll wear this type of mask to avoid infecting others.
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A really good idea.
Kind of like honoring your elders and taking your shoes off when you enter a home.
There’s some pretty strange stuff about Japanese society, for sure, but there are things to admire there, too.
I just read an article that it all started with a SARS outbreak.
And yet Asians are still getting sick. If the masks worked they’d have made the common cold extinct by now.
I read some guys story that as an American in Japan it is impossible for him to make friends.
Even the Japanese themselves don’t talk to each other..
The purpose is to control spreading of germs. Health insurance.
I wish we would have that custom here. There’s nothing like being sneezed on by someone with a bad cold...
(btw, I think the idea was introduced into Japan after the 1922 earthquake, by US medical aid workers.)
Usually they are protecting others. They themselves have a cold or cough and don’t want to spread the germs.
The air quality in China is very bad. China doesn’t have an EPA cracking down on polluters.
The cities in Asia are very densely populated. Personal space is very constricted. Contagion is a real threat.
“And yet Asians are still getting sick. If the masks worked they’d have made the common cold extinct by now.”
Doctors wear the masks in operating rooms and patients still get sick and get infections. Therefore, according to this thinking, one would be ok with undergoing an operation without anyone in the room wearing a mask. Or washing hands or sterilizing equipment.
Drastic examples, I know. But could it be that the mask wearers politely help society just a little bit?
It seemed the most logical, and appears to match the majority of replies.
But you’re right; I should have chosen one like #13.
Even here in Salem Oregon. Especially at my gym. It’s weird. But hey whatever floats their boat.
face masks were commonplace in the 1950s in Yokohama...
#4 is the correct answer. I have lived and traveled in Asia since the Mid 60s.
Gosh, I love the folks here on FR!
Other posts also noted that people wear the masks in heavy pollution.
Being a farmer, when I am mowing, I wear the masks to prevent an asthma attack from gunk in the air.
Yes, all part of the mix. IIRC, in much of Asia, blowing your nose into a linen handkerchief in public and then neatly folding the handkerchief and returning it to your pocket is viewed with disgust - a major cultural faux pas. In fact, it's offensive to blow your nose, yawn, or even clear your throat except in private. I've seen 'em spit on the sidewalk without any hesitation, though (maybe that was a message aimed at me?)
-PJ
It’s a courtesy on the part of the under-the-weather wearer. I’d like to see it catch on with the rest of us.
I have some Blu-rays of Christian Thielemann conducting the Brahms symphonies with the Dresden Staatskapelle from about 5 years ago. For symphonies 1 and 3, they were performing on tour in Tokyo. When the camera shows the audience, many are wearing those surgical masks; so I guess the entire Asian area does it.
I visited my doctor in March and was diagnosed with the Flu. When she came back into the office with the diagnosis, she was wearing one of those masks and brought one for me to put on. They are probably a good idea during communicable respiratory disease season.
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