Japan is a country that builds its foundations on
social etiquette. If you’re feeling sick, you ‘do the right thing’ and wear a mask. But there are also other, more surprising, reasons why people choose to strap up and have half their face covered by a white piece of paper.
Increasingly, people are choosing to wear masks for cosmetic reasons: they’re not wearing any makeup and want to hide their face. Think of it like wearing a hat when you can't be bothered to style your hair. Others take it one step further, wanting to hide their emotions. The
honne–tatemae divide is considered by some to be of paramount importance in Japanese culture – the contrast between a person’s true feelings and desires (
honne) and the behaviour and opinions one displays in public (
tatemae). By wearing a mask, these emotions can remain hidden.
In 2011, Japanese news site News Post Seven surveyed 100 people in Shibuya, Tokyo, and found that 30 per cent of them were wearing masks for reasons unrelated to sickness. Many girls claimed wearing a mask gave them a ‘mysterious’ appearance since only their eyes were showing. Others were convinced it made their faces smaller.