Japanese relearn smiling after government eases masking guidelines

Some people in Japan are signing up to relearn how to smile after masking guidelines were eased in mid-March.

While there was no mask mandate in Japan during the pandemic, the government’s recommendations to wear face coverings were enough to create a masking culture that was obeyed by most of the population. Businesses, transportation companies, indoor areas, public spaces and airlines required masks.

Under the new guidance, people are urged to wear masks on public transportation during rush hour or when there’s congestion and in medical institutions. 

However, masking was widespread enough that even under the new guidelines, about 80% of people in Japan still wear masks sometimes in public, according to surveys. As of April, over 40% said they still wear masks out of habit. Only about 8% are estimated to have dropped mask-wearing altogether.

Now some people are taking classes to learn how to smile again. Keiko Kawano, who teaches such a class, says she has students sit in front of a mirror and use their hands to shape their mouths into a smile. Students also use an app for smiling practice which scores their grins.

"I hadn't used my facial muscles much during COVID so it's good exercise," said 20-year-old Himawari Yoshida, one of Kawano’s students.

Still, over a quarter of art students who took the class wore a mask during the lesson, reports Reuters.

The smile business is booming. Kawano’s company, Egaoiku — which means “smile education” — charges 7,700 yen ($55) per hour for a one-on-one lesson. In the last year, Kawano says demand has jumped over four fold and she has trained 23 smiling coaches.

But the ability to smile is not the only human response harmed by rampant mask-wearing.

A study published last year by researchers at Ben Gurion University in Israel and Toronto’s York University found that masks have a devastating effect on children. Specifically, the study found that masks negatively impact children’s "ability to make social interactions with peers and educators, as well as their ability to form important relationships." 

Assistant Professor Erez Freud of the Faculty of Health at York University is the study’s senior author. 

"Not only do masks hinder the ability of children to recognize faces, but they also disrupt the typical, holistic way that faces are processed,” said Freud. 

He added, “If holistic processing is impaired and recognition is impaired, there is a possibility it could impair children’s ability to navigate through social interactions with their peers and teachers, and this could lead to issues forming important relationships. Given the importance of faces to social interactions, this is something we need to pay attention to.” 

Mask-wearing in Japan existed even before the pandemic — during flu season, in crowded places, and among the ill — though not as pervasively. The country’s belief in mask efficacy has puzzled diligent scientists, who cite strong evidence that masks are ineffective.

A meta-analysis published earlier this year by the Cochrane Institute — considered the “gold standard of evidence-based reviews” — concluded that surgical masks and even N95 or P2 respirators offer little protection against COVID-19, if at all.

Researchers reviewed 78 global studies involving over 600,000 people. Significantly, the studies they looked at were randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies, which are considered to be high-quality research and the scientific optimum.

The study’s conclusion has already been known for two years to many who refused to wear face masks. While low-quality studies by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that masks offer as much as an 80% reduction in infection rates, both RCT studies conducted in 2021 on mask efficacy showed different findings. One from Bangladesh found that masks provide an 11% infection decrease for older people and no impact on younger people, and one from Denmark showed that masks have no effect on infections at all.