Japanese and perhaps most Northeast Asians seem to often wear masks in public. Is this a matter of disease prevention, or social avoidance? In the USA, it's as sure a sign of Woke idiocy as a Ukranian flag, but I suspect it's different in Japan.
As you say, mask use is also aimed at preventing illness and avoiding infection, but it is said that one in three Japanese people suffer from hay fever, and many people experience allergic reactions to various types of pollen throughout the year, which is why mask use is so high.
So it is not a matter of social avoidance? Japanese don't strike me as the kind of people who really enjoy things like being packed into trains by pushers. In pictures you show, a lot of Japanese in crowded spaces seem to be wearing masks and/or poking at phone, both possibly being ways of sort of being alone in a crowd, a sort of mild hikikomori response.
I don't like wearing masks, and I'm not the type of person who plays with my smartphone in a crowd, so I don't know what they're really thinking, but crowded situations are stressful for people, so as you say, these actions may have hikikomori (or self-defense) meanings.
I had never really thought about it until you pointed it out, but this Japanese attitude may have arisen with the aim of maintaining one's own personal space while being as respectful of others as possible, even in crowded places.
カメラスタンド🤩
Japanese and perhaps most Northeast Asians seem to often wear masks in public. Is this a matter of disease prevention, or social avoidance? In the USA, it's as sure a sign of Woke idiocy as a Ukranian flag, but I suspect it's different in Japan.
As you say, mask use is also aimed at preventing illness and avoiding infection, but it is said that one in three Japanese people suffer from hay fever, and many people experience allergic reactions to various types of pollen throughout the year, which is why mask use is so high.
So it is not a matter of social avoidance? Japanese don't strike me as the kind of people who really enjoy things like being packed into trains by pushers. In pictures you show, a lot of Japanese in crowded spaces seem to be wearing masks and/or poking at phone, both possibly being ways of sort of being alone in a crowd, a sort of mild hikikomori response.
I don't like wearing masks, and I'm not the type of person who plays with my smartphone in a crowd, so I don't know what they're really thinking, but crowded situations are stressful for people, so as you say, these actions may have hikikomori (or self-defense) meanings.
This is by no means a criticism of the Japanese; it is perhaps the things I like most about them that might incline them to do this.
I had never really thought about it until you pointed it out, but this Japanese attitude may have arisen with the aim of maintaining one's own personal space while being as respectful of others as possible, even in crowded places.