Germs, Germs, Germs!

Asia » Japan
May 22nd 2009

Published: May 22nd 2009

I've written before about the Japanese and their fear of germs, but with the spread of Swine flu, known here as "Shingata Influ" (New Strain Flu). We are in the highest gear of quirky germaphobia.

So why do we call it New Strain flu instead of swine flu? To not turn people away from pork. Now in analyzing the Japanese mentality, this was not a good move. First, NEW tends to invoke fear here. Change and new is a bad thing. Secondly, if it had stayed as swine or pig flu, it would have given the Japanese another reason to bash meat eating cultures and foreign meat. There was a foreign pork issue here a few years back and then mad cow, and the Japanese still enjoy talking about how bad and unhealthy foreign meat is. And is reinforced by every restaurant, supermarket, and fast food store making sure to brand their meat as Japanese. Getting away from the diseases, Japanese also like to poke fun at the unhealthy meat-filled diets of Westerners. So in conclusion, if they had just stuck with Swine Flu they could have happily blamed everything on foreign meat.

So now the overreaction:

Around 300* people have been infected so far, mostly in the Kansai (Western populated area of Japan, not Tokyo). Schools in Kansai have been closed, and Waseda has been on the brink a few times of cancelling. If it starts to creep up here, I may have a vacation coming. So if they close schools we just go out to different places to spread our germs, big deal. All pharmacies are sold out of protective masks. Remember those scenes of SARS with all the Asians in the masks? That's life. Masks are going for around 50 dollars each online right now and mask factories are running 24/7. A principal of a school who had students in New York held a news conference to publicly apologize for perhaps bringing the flu to Osaka and broke down crying. I go to a nice supermarket by my subway station a few times a week to pick up stuff for myself and grab free samples of bread from the really nice bakery attached to it. Two days ago things were normal. Today, all workers had masks and gloves. Plus, the bakery was in lockdown. I think I wrote before about the way Japanese bakeries work...so no neither an unknown stranger, nor the baker that bakes it, touches the bread that you will bring into your house and eventually put in your body. Ordinarily, you use big trays and long tongs to take the bread you want from shelves and tables in the front of the store. Sound safe? Not safe enough. Today, every piece of bread was individually wrapped in plastic.

I've had some fun here playing off the Japanese germaphobia...like seeing their reactions when I reach into the garbage to take something out that I dropped, or taking the hook out of a fish. Thats a good story- In Chiba little host brother went "fishing" in a pool full of fish. Because it was a pool, you can pull up alot. Except no Japanese want to touch the slimy thing because you don't know where its been. Really without thinking twice I grabbed it through the gills and took the hook out, to the astonishment of the whole family. So as I was saying, I've had some fun. But today tops it all. I did some evil on the train today. I coughed, intentionally. Three people in my area, one right next to me, glared at me then moved as far away as possible. Then at the next stop they got out and entered the next car. I'll remember that one when I'm sandwiched between salarymen on Monday's commuter train.

So...in a country this germaphobic, why is there no soap or paper towels in half the public bathrooms, school included? To protect the environment.

Total Swine Flu infections: 300 Regular flu infections this year in Japan: ~12000. So we are talking around 2.5% here. Come on people, come down.

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved