Japanese Mask Culture

日本人とマスクの関係についての英作文。外国人は公共の場でマスクをしている日本人にギョッとするらしいですね。日本滞在経験のある外国人が、”街中医者だらけ？疫病？”と申しておりました。”そんなわけないじゃん！”と思ったけど何人かから同じような感想を聞いたので、世界的にみておかしいのは日本人のほうなのかも。

Japanese Mask Culture

I was watching the swine flu news on TV this morning. A Japanese TV reporter interviewed people in N.Y and  asked why they didn’t wear surgical masks. I think there is  a cultural difference about wearing masks between nations.

When  foreign people read a guidebook of Japan, they will see religious, mysterious, and exotic masks of Japanese culture. In fact, the  most  famous masks in our culture is a are surgical masks in winter.

I’ve heard that when foreigners come to Japan, they are all surprised that a considerable number of Japanese people wear surgical masks in public. Foreigners wonder if  they are all health workers even though they don’t look like doctors or  nurses at all. Japanese people wear masks not because there is a pandemic of flu very winter. There are several reasons.

Firstly, when Japanese people catch a cold, they wear masks not to spread to avoid spreading viruses to public. Wearing a mask when having a cold is considered to be etiquette good manners.

Secondly, Japanese people wear masks to fend off viruses not to catch to avoid catching cold. In spring, people who are suffering from hay fever wear masks not to inhale to avoid inhaling allergic pollen. It is said that about Since an estimated 20% of Japanese have hay fever, it is likely that many people wear masks in spring.

Thirdly, some of my colleagues wear masks not to spread out their  noxious bad breath when they’ve got drunk the previous night. I believe presume that people who wear masks even in summer and autumn have bad breath and try to avoid them.

There are variety of masks available in drugstores. The N-95 mask is for a professional use in hospitals but sold for laypeople. There  are also lovely anime character masks for children and young ladies,  aroma oil impregnated masks to comfort stresses reduce stress,　an innovative mask for those wearing glasses not to builds to avoid building up condensation to on glasses when breathing . These masks are were invented not only to fend off viruses, but enjoy mask wearing lives to help people to enjoy wearing a mask. Thanks to these masks, wearing masks in public is widely accepted in Japan.

I’ve heard that only Japanese tourists wear masks in N.Y even though there is swine flu ongoing going around. The Japanese tourists said they felt embarrassed by being looking at. If the flu pandemic comes to Japan, I assume every Japanese person will willingly wear a mask because we’ve already have brilliant mask culture. I’d like to recommend people living abroad to wear a Japanese mask. Once you wear it one, it will fit comfortably to your face, and you’ll never want to give it up.