Asia is loosening rules on masks, here’s why people still wear them

SEOUL - South Korea

dropped indoor masking on Monday.

Japan has ditched masks outdoors and is getting ready to unmask indoors soon, too. Taiwan is set to jettison its mandate later in February.

Mask mandates, once a ubiquitous feature of the coronavirus pandemic, are finally being let go in several nations and territories in East Asia, where pandemic restrictions have lingered for much longer than in other parts of the world.

Wearing a mask comes with some discomfort, including hindering communication and fogging up glasses. Countries in South-east Asia and Europe, as well as the United States, abandoned masking requirements months ago.

But even with their governments easing rules, many citizens in East Asia are unlikely to stop wearing masks completely any time soon. Here are some reasons.

Old habits are hard to change

In many parts of Asia, people have been required to wear a mask diligently for more than two years. That has cemented a habit of putting them on regularly, and habits are hard to change.

Ms Mizuki Nishimura, 24, who teaches ballet in Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city, said that mask-wearing had become a reflex for her students, so they continued to wear them even when they were no longer recommended by the school.

“They mask just like they reflexively bow their heads when seeing an elder,” she said. “Without a mask on, they feel something is missing.”

Mask-wearing customs predate Covid-19 in Asia, so the habit took hold more quickly in the region during the pandemic.

As early as the 1918 flu pandemic and, more recently, severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2002 and Middle East respiratory syndrome in 2012, health officials across Asia were able to persuade the public to wear face masks.

Some people in South Korea and Japan have also taken advantage of the fact that they do not have to wear make-up or smile when they wear a mask. Taking them off therefore comes with some inconvenience.

In Japan, some have called masks “kao pantsu”, or “face pants”, meaning that unmasking would be as embarrassing as taking off underwear in public.

Masks have relieved many South Koreans of the societal pressure to maintain a level of facial beauty, said Dr Kim Sangmin, a scholar in cultural studies at CATS Lab, a research centre in Seoul, who has written about masks. “People have taken comfort in their faces being concealed, and they feel some discomfort about revealing their bare faces.”

Health officials still recommend them

While masks are not strictly required in Japan and South Korea, the countries’ health authorities continue to urge people to wear them, especially indoors. Infections in both countries have declined steadily in the past month, but health officials have warned of the rising risk of reinfection and the possibility of a spike in cases as global travel restrictions ease.

“The danger of Covid-19 has not disappeared yet,” Mr Kim Seong-ho, a senior health official in South Korea, said on Wednesday.

In South Korea, masks are still required on public transit and in healthcare facilities. Rather than take their masks off and on, many people do not bother to remove them after hopping off the bus or exiting a hospital in Seoul.

The Japanese authorities are still encouraging people to wear a mask indoors, even as they say it is no longer necessary to wear them outdoors. Japan never mandated masks or imposed penalties for not wearing them.

The authorities only recommended them, and wearing masks became an unspoken rule. Since people usually carry their masks with them wherever they go, they tend to keep them on their faces even when they are outside.

“I’m sure some people think if it’s encouraged indoors, it means there is something to be scared of, so I should leave it on outdoors, too,” said Ms Miki Moro, 30, a job recruiter in Tokyo.

“I am sure there are others who just think it is annoying to take their masks on and off depending on location, so they just leave it on,” she added.

Epidemiological studies have shown that mask use is high in places that kept infections low throughout the pandemic.

Mask mandates have also been shown to significantly slow the spread of the virus in the United States, Dr John Volckens, a public health engineer at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, has said.

The avoidance of other respiratory illnesses, like flu and seasonal allergies, is also a reason some people have decided keep their masks on.

Masks signal respect for others’ well-being

Wearing a mask has also been associated with good etiquette for many people in Asia. It is common courtesy to wear a mask in public to prevent others from getting sick, especially because one never knows who around them might have weakened immune systems or live with someone who is vulnerable.

In crowded spaces, unmasked people stand out.

“You will be stared at if you don’t have your mask on,” said Dr Kazunari Onishi, the author of The Dignity Of Masks and an associate professor of public health at St Luke’s International University in Tokyo.

Dr Kim, the cultural studies scholar, said that he personally continued to wear a mask outside to give off “the image that I am a person who does not cause harm to others” – not necessarily because of his belief in its scientific benefits (though there is some disagreement among experts on whether a mask protects the wearer from infection).

“South Koreans can consider it disrespectful not to wear a mask,” he said. “They place importance in not causing harm to their neighbours.”

Masks protect against the region’s air pollution

Fine dust levels in East Asia have consistently failed to meet international air quality standards over the years. So people have long been used to wearing a mask to protect against the health effects of the air pollution, such as coughing, sneezing and tightness of the chest.

The dangers of air pollution are sharply felt in South Korea, where masks are a common line of defence on days when fine dust particles form a gray haze in the sky.

In 2022, the average concentration of PM2.5, a dangerous fine particulate, was 18 micrograms per cubic m, according to the country’s weather authorities, exceeding the 5mcg per cubic m deemed safe by the World Health Organisation.

“The culture of wearing a mask has settled in since fine dust started becoming an issue in the 2010s,” Dr Kim said. Because masks were so widely used before, mask factories in South Korea were better prepared for mass production once the virus broke out in 2019, he added.

In China and India, which have historically recorded some of the worst air pollution levels in the world, health officials have maintained mask mandates to protect against Covid-19. NYTIMES