Coronavirus: Japan has dropped its outdoor mask mandate, but the message has not filtered through to the public

A Laibo survey found just 30.3 per cent of people would stop wearing masks because the government said it was OK to do so

It was common to wear a mask before the pandemic, as people could put on a face cover after catching a cold, rather than to avoid one

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Published: 2:44pm, 9 Jun 2022

When the coronavirus pandemic began over two years ago, people in Japan quickly donned masks en masse with little complaint. But now the government has relaxed its guidance on outdoor mask usage, the message appears not be to filtering through.

On May 23, the ministry of health changed its advice to approve removing face coverings outside provided people maintain 2 metres distance from each other and do not converse. Quiet, spacious indoor environments can also be used mask-free, it said.

But Tokyo’s streets have since shown few signs of a mass unmasking, in an outcome anticipated by a survey released the day after the relaxation. A sample of 708 employed adults taken between May 11 and 16 by polling firm Laibo found just 30.3 per cent of people would unmask because the government said it was OK to do so.

Kazuya Nakayachi, a psychology professor at Kyoto’s Doshisha University specialising in trust and risk perception, says that rather than following government advice, people wear masks because they see others with them on.

More likely to be effective in changing behaviour, he said, is encouragement to unmask from employers and other organizations closer to people’s lives. Then, he said, the domino effect that saw people quickly don masks in large numbers could suddenly go into reverse.