It was a moment of celebration for some Americans, but Ms Matsuda did not like the sound of it.
“I would be uncomfortable if the person next to me on the plane was wearing a mask,” said the 64-year-old retiree, eating a sandwich outside a shopping mall in Tokyo. “We don’t know yet how we can live” with coronavirus. At this stage, we’d better take a more conservative approach.”
Images of masked Americans packing sports stadiums, attending business meetings, and now boarding airplanes look as if they came from another planet for most of Asia, where masking is almost universal and has been in place for some time. Likely to stay.
Japan in particular offers a counterpart to the US trend: Mask requests are generally voluntary, yet compliance is widespread.
“I believe it’s a result of peer pressure,” said Ryo Takahashi, a 22-year-old college student wearing a cloth mask on Wednesday while waiting in line at a McDonald’s restaurant. Mr Takahashi said he was not overly concerned about getting infected because he is young and the current Omicron version does not cause serious illness, but added that he was still wearing a mask so as not to stand out. .
Major American airlines quickly lifted the mask mandate on Monday after a federal judge in Florida said a federal mandate exceeded the authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many responded by removing their masks, some in mid-flight as soon as news of the ruling spread.
Those scenes are unlikely to repeat in East Asia anytime soon. From Thailand to South Korea, either Japanese-style social pressure or government mandates have kept people masked.
In South Korea, where an omicron wave has receded since peaking in March over the worst US outbreak, officials have lifted restrictions on the size of gatherings and hours of business operations. But a mask mandate remains.
Interior and Security Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said on Wednesday that the mandate for outdoor settings could be lifted in May. Officials said that the mask will have to be worn indoors for a long time. “The importance of wearing a mask remains formidable,” Mr Jean said.
Hong Kong is set to ease social-distancing rules on Thursday after easing its Omicron wave, but it is also keeping its mask mandate in public places – even for those exercising outside . Violators can be fined more than $600.
In Japan, wearing masks was fairly common even before COVID-19, when people had colds or allergies, and the custom has become ingrained over the past two years.
Engineer Toshihiro Tajima, 63, said he planned to wear the mask for the rest of his life. “Given my age, I am worried, because the corona will not go extinct,” he said.
Infection levels in Japan, South Korea and some other parts of Asia remain higher than in the US as the Omicron BA.2 subvariant continues to spread, although deaths and hospitalizations have declined.
Shops, restaurants and event halls in Japan ask visitors to cover their faces, except when they are eating. At school, students wear masks most of the time and have lunch quietly. Signs are ubiquitous in train stations.
Right now it doesn’t seem like people are offended by being chilled all the time.
Koji Yoshimura, an official with the Japan Federation of Higher-Taxi Associations, said there were sometimes fights between taxi drivers and riders over mask requests in the early days of the pandemic, when masks were in short supply, but “such disputes are rarely recent.” Have just heard. ,
A survey conducted in March by Tokyo data-services company Planet Inc. found that more than a third of respondents intended to wear a mask all the time even after the coronavirus was under control, while half said they would sometimes wear a mask. Will wear. ,
In the wake of a US court ruling, Japanese airlines said they will continue to ask passengers on both domestic and international flights to wear face coverings onboard and at airports.
While the rule is not mandatory, Japan Airlines Company spokesman Tetsuya Hayano said, “we persuade passengers to wear masks as much as possible”. If they don’t comply, they may not be allowed to fly, the company’s website says, “this is to ease the concerns of other passengers,” Hayano said.
Ms Matsuda, a Tokyo retiree, said she was looking at flying to Spain and Portugal after the pandemic ends. After seeing the news on Wednesday, she said she could avoid the US carrier.