2023.04.12
Japanese people don't take off their masks even now. According to a recent survey, 90% still wear. On the train, it feels close to 100%, and about 70% of people do not remove it outdoors. On the other hand, in restaurants and izakayas, it has become common to have loud conversations without wearing masks. If you are really afraid of infection, I don't think it will be such an unbalanced scene.
Most of the foreign tourists who have been reviving here recently are not wearing masks. When I was in Europe last summer, most of the people there weren't wearing them, so I probably won't go back to masks now. From their point of view, the scenery of Japan must be a wonder. I feel very uncomfortable. Recently, I feel even resentment beyond the sense of incongruity.
Wearing a mask, especially for young people and children, is a risk factor for communication development disorders that is thousands or tens of thousands of times the risk of impairing physical condition in the near future. Moreover, this obstacle will follow you for the rest of your life. Apologies to the visually impaired, but there is no doubt that vision plays a major role in communication. For children who grow up in a world where everyone wears masks, it can be an unfortunate situation where they can't even remember the faces of their teachers or classmates. It's a thorny problem for adults, too. Robbery is also set to provide a playing field for fraud. Government offices and medical institutions only emphasize the risk of infection, but they do not give warnings that hinder the development of communication, also no waring to become criminal friendly world. It's funny.
A long time ago, when I lived in the United States, I often visited local schools where children attended, and there were posters of boys with 16 different facial expressions in every classroom. In Japan, it was pasted like a map or a poster with the Japanese syllabary. Speaking of Japanese facial expressions, they can be summed up in four ways: emotions, anger, sadness, and pleasure, but there were many variations in that country, such as Confused, Enbarassed, and Scared. 4 or 16 facial expressions, which one is better for communication in the age of globalization? The answer is obvious. If you don't understand the language, the facial expression will be a substitute. Even if we can understand each other in words, we can express our intentions and feelings through facial expressions.
And now it's 1 to 16 instead of 4 to 16. It will make a root of trouble in the future.
