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The novel coronavirus has completely changed the daily lives for many across the world.
It began spreading in Japan around February 2020, and as of April 2021, more than a year later, there is still no prospect of an end to the disease.
With increased infections over the last few weeks, Japan’s virus expert "acknowledges a fourth wave " and Tokyo, Osaka, and Hyogo are "set for a third state of emergency" to be declared today.
In order to coexist with the coronavirus, people have adapted to living a “new normal” life, with an emphasis on preventative measures such as wearing masks in public, checking body temperature and frequent disinfection upon entering businesses, as well as refraining from nonessential outings.
National No-Mask Picnic Day
On April 19, a volunteer project called “Nationwide No-Mask Picnic Day,” (全国同時ノーマスクピクニックディー) started trending on Twitter.
The plan was for participants to gather on May 1-2 in parks across Japan from Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Hiroshima, Kagawa, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Okinawa and others to have mask-less picnics.
The website says, "Why don’t like-minded people connect with each other, breathe in fresh air, laugh and show their true faces for a bit of fun?"
The plan spread across Twitter, with many voicing criticisms, saying that it was dangerous and should be stopped, and could cause trouble for medical institutions.
Organizer Announces Cancelation in Response to Criticism
On April 20, just a day after the project was announced, the organizers updated their website to announce the event’s cancellation.
The reason was stated as follows.
"Due to the unexpected spread of this event and the media reports, we have seen a lot of personal slander and defamation, and after considering the safety of the participants, we have decided to cancel the entire event. For the sake of children who are affected physically and mentally by not being able to see each other's facial expressions, for children who have become addicted to masks, and for babies who are currently developing face recognition, we want to let them live in a world without masks.
"These are the thoughts of the planners and supporters. We believe that accepting excessive countermeasures against infectious diseases without questioning the corona scare will have a great negative impact on the growth of children, which is why we decided to launch this event.
"For the sake of children's smiles and Japan's future, we will continue to take steps with conviction. We hope that everyone’s lives will soon be able to return to normal, so they can live freely, happily, and with a smile on their faces."
When it was announced that the project would be canceled, "total cancellation" (#全面中止) started trending on Twitter.
Many people had various opinions about how the project was canceled.
"Of course I want to return to normal life. But I can't help but wonder if it's really the right time to do this for the children's sake."
"I don't want to burden medical staff because the infection is still spreading and medical institutions are having a hard time."
"I hope they will listen to opposing opinions instead of just saying 'because of the slander.'"
Read more stories from grape Japan.
-- Sakura Season is Over, Time for Tulips at Osaka’s Expo Park
-- The Fascinating Memorial Museum for Soldiers, Detainees in Siberia, and Post-war Repatriates
-- Dress up your 3, 5 or 7-year old kids in Pokémon-themed kimono at Studio Alice
- External Link
- https://grapee.jp/en/
45 Comments
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AG
It is still playing with fire...
HBJ
There are some absolute idiots in the world who unfortunately can’t understand just how serious certain situations are.
snowymountainhell
‘This’ they can cancel but, this summer’s Big Event is still ‘full steam ahead’, “at any cost”.
snowymountainhell
The children will be disappointed. We were looking forward to this.
“The website says, "Why don’t like-minded people connect with each other, breathe in fresh air, laugh and show their true faces for a bit of fun?"”The entertainment was “rumored to be” one of those clowns that periodically “entertain us with their antics” on domestic flights, hotel breakfast buffets and bullet trains.
dbsaiya
Idiots showing true commitment, cancel with just a little push back. Spend your time more productively, and stop wasting time and space.
George Townes
No mask pinics??
Hope this idiots are not also anti-vaxxers.
Just 我慢 & 頑張れ a little while longer until you get the vaccine. Then you can gather without masks with others who have also received the vaccine.
didou
No mask restaurant is the norm,
Why no mask picnics should be downvoted?
Fears drive people, not science based facts
obladi
With no immediate prospects for widespread vaccination, masks are the only thing keeping Japan from going into full-blown crisis mode. So, please don't promote no-mask events at all. Period. Is this clear?
Wear you masks!
porto
If they were going to hike up a mountain far away from people sure.
But weren't they going to go to some frequented public park/open area?
PharaohChromium
Look at the outings in Florida, or the stadium packed baseball in Ohio. God, look at the amount of deaths that have resulted!! /s they're dying in the streets, OMG. Panic!!!
In reality, no adverse results. But stay scared, everyone. The covid boogeyman will never stop. Keep accepting your lifelong pandemic. Enjoy getting your yearly injection. Hell, maybe monthly injection eventually.
Bob Fosse
Yeah, stay scared everyone with your monthly injections. Wait, who is scared again? Who is scare mongering? Oh, you are.
PharaohChromium
Many people dont want to put some experimental vaccine into their bodies. One that has many cases of bad side effects. If you're not scared, go for it. Just leave me be to NOT get it. Thanks.
smithinjapan
Absolute morons to think of it in the first place.
Bob Fosse
It’s mind boggling how those obsessed with freedom and being lied to about vaccines spend so much time lying about the vaccine and telling other people what to do.
thaonephil
If the organizers did not see the reaction of the public coming from miles away they have much worse problems than "slander"
Happy Day
Didou- agree 100%.
Remember “follow the science”? It disappeared a long time ago and was replaced by propaganda.
You can’t catch COVID outdoors unless you try really hard. Why can’t you have picnics as long as you are spaced a few feet apart from non-family?
Lockdowns don’t stop the spread, but they do kill the economy. See California, New York, and Michigan. And yet, lots of States are still shut down to an extent.
And there is ZERO proof masks help to prevent the virus. Florida never had a mask mandate. They fared well despite being wide open and having a large elderly population.
Texas masks have been coming off steadily from early March. Covid cases have plummeted since then. Vaccines are widely available. But some “experts” are still recommending masks until next year!
Japan’s death rate went DOWN last year. Despite “spikes” in cases that make for great headlines, Japan is not suffering from Covid. But government is acting like the Black Plague hit, with no end in sight.
COVID policy has, for a long time now, NOT been about protecting people. It’s about fear and control. It will be interesting to see how long people tolerate it.
Goodlucktoyou
To all you brainwashed paper mask wearers, you mfers throw 1,200,000,000 masks every day into the sea or land. Everyday.!
depending on mask composite, the breakdown and Nanoparticle distribution can range from 40-450 years.
These Nanoparticles are linked to cancer in humans, mammals and animals.
Bob Fosse
Why? Who is benefiting from this and how?
Be specific.
PharaohChromium
Big pharma are getting richer. And it will in good time decrease human population for the rich elite. That's about it.
Bob Fosse
And you have evidence for this or is it just a hunch?
PharaohChromium
Do you believe they really care about you and want to keep you all around to continue damaging the earth for their future?
Bob Fosse
So, the rich elite want to kill me off by making me spend money on healthcare. Sounds like a dumb plan to me.
Addfwyn
@PharaohChromium
People continue to conflate vaccines with personal health choices.
Not drinking alcohol or not eating red meat are personal health choices, these affect nobody around you and should be decisions made entirely of your own accord.
Vaccinations are a public health issue, they do not just affect you. It is extraordinarily selfish to say that "my choice is more important than your life", but that is what you are doing.
Not everyone can get vaccinated, some people are immuno-compromised and are dependent on otherwise healthy individuals to do the right thing. We can't, as of yet, force people to do the right thing, but it is a real bad look not to.
Toasted Heretic
Well, there's this thing called a pandemic going down. Perhaps you've heard of it?
Toasted Heretic
I agree. Exhorting people to risk their lives so they can justify their own selfishness.
By risking your own and others. Nah. Think I'll be sensible, no hurry to kick the bucket.
Addfwyn
Yes.
Accepting the premise at face value, that the rich only care about getting richer and don't care about anyone else (a fair premise, sidenote) that is exactly what they would want to do. If they need constant economic growth and more people to exploit, they need to keep people around. On the other hand, they extra don't care about the future of the earth or its environment.
Even being cynical as possible, the rich benefit probably the most from keeping people around as long as they aren't improving their lot in life too much or threatening their power.
PharaohChromium
I'm often told to 'trust the science' which is nowadays akin to trusting the system. I don't trust the system. Things are changing and they really don't mind to eliminate a large number of us by forcing their poison on us. I'm guessing we won't have to wait too long to see the effects of all this. I guess around a decade. Through my own reading and research, I personally will not enable the future that they want. I am rejecting what the system is telling me to do.
Sven Asai
Of course, in general I’m also strict again such events. But in this very special case... The argumentation...and for babies who are currently developing face recognition...is really such clever, I would only for that smart statement allow them to hold their little event. Just generously, because they have deserved it.
Toasted Heretic
Who is they, again? And much as I abhor the system, like a stopped clock, it occasionally is correct.
In my experience, this oft-mentioned reading and research is done down dark rabbit holes and crank videos on YouTube. Genuinely hope your endeavours have unearthed the best and brilliant of medical minds.
Bob Fosse
Stick it to the man! Freedom for Tooting!
Living off the grid eh? Sounds nice.
Toasted Heretic
How does one do that in Japan, anyway? I'd be well into that, if it wasn't for these old bones.
Lol, nobody's going to get that without googling, but nice one, all the same.
shogun36
Hopefully everyone that participated in such nonsense were tracked down and slapped silly.
Albert
It is not the outdoor but the people who distributes the virus. People don't realize what the virus do when someone is getting sick.
Having an organized picknick without carrying should be prohibited. When people who don't care get sick than they want all the medical attention.
I'm working in the pharmaceutical and have seen cases i hope people will not experience.
Cognac
for all the people complaning, would you tell me how you can go picnic and eat food while wearing a mask ?
it's the same stupid thing that happens in restaurant, I enter into the restaurant, wear mask please, I start eat food, I take out mask and the virus go lunch time too
this is very stupid
S.I.
by who? you? pmsl.
Richard Gallagher
The individuals who deny the 'science' that has revealed the nature and the pathways of the virus, unraveled its structure and produced vaccines - are simply expressing an uniformed opinion with no basis in fact. There are numerous peer reviewed research and academic articles in prestigious journals of virology & immunology and science writ large. Those are difficult to read and comprehend without an education in basic science.
Anyone who has actually read and comprehends the numerous articles written by legitimate scientists and researchers are fully aware that the virus is dangerous and that there are protocols and measures for reducing its spread.
Those who advocate large public picnics in public spaces are not just ill-informed, they are ignorant & dangerous. The virus can spread outdoors by various means and will if such an event takes place.
The bizarre contention about children being unable to 'read faces' completely ignores the fact that the basic interactions for such are between Mother & child, and other family members. Such occurs mostly within the home environment, not at large public picnics. To use such as a justification for not wearing masks is stupid.
As for those in rebellion against the system, that is charming to present such as a rational for not wearing a mask or adhering to protocols. Such respect for the safety of others is customary and mannered within community, ignoring such is hardly a means of rebellion. The reference to an oppressive 'system', is so vague as to be meaningless. Living some fabulist, based on magical thinking life as a hermit off the grid, is simply daft. The difficulty of doing such as an individual is impossible - in community it is possible within a certain means.
The 'system' provides stoplights, gated railroad crossings, speed limits to mention just a few instances, which may seem relatively minor, but are of large import and doesn't broach the array of protective mechanisms that are not an impingement on freedom, but via the social contract are agreed upon mostly by consensus. Consumer safety-laws were hard fought and opposed by 'the system' as represented by rich & powerful individuals who lorded over corporations and large swaths of government. To deem safety measures, emplaced to protect the general population as the hand of a repressive government or a conspiracy by the rich to keep the mob at bay or wallowing in consumptive enterprise is nonsensical and devoid of reality.
The ridiculous statements, that betray not just a misunderstanding of the current pandemic, but reflect a gross ignorance of science and the greater good is not just unfortunate, it is ludicrous and mental. Those individuals are a danger to the body social.
El Rata
There are enough beds and doctors, it is just that unlike the west, the Japanese government cannot force private hospitals or clinics to become Corona hospitals. I happen to be good friends with one the owner/director of one of the largest hospitals in my prefecture and he told me that allowing Corona patients is bad for the image of the business, ordinary patients won't come if they accept 'rona people therefore loads if hospitals simply refuse people with symptoms. At the end of the day money rules scamdemic or not.
shogun36
Sure. And it looks like we found the first person in line.