At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, everyone wanted masks, but they were in short supply. The Prime Minister at the time, Mr. Abe, announced every household would receive two washable, reusable masks from the Japanese government. It sounded like a great plan at the time. The government said the plan was reasonable in that it would help reduce the demand for disposable masks and ease public anxiety.
Many people complained about the cost (46.6 billion yen) and the small size and that two per household doesn't work for families. In addition, they took so long to be delivered that people made their own masks and later, masks were back on the store shelves, so the timing was a little off.
I did think they were small. I added a little fabric and decorated one of mine with stitching.
Last week I read in the news that about 83 million of these Abenomasks are still unused and are being kept in a private storage facility costing hundreds of millions of yen! This is about one third of the 280 million masks that were originally made to be distributed.
These leftovers in storage are worth 11.5 billion yen and their storage fee for eight months cost 600 million yen, according to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshikhiko Isozaki. He insisted the masks were appropriate at the time and that the government would consider the possible use of the masks as needed.
As needed? What does that mean? Needed for another pandemic?
Any ideas? What else could these masks be used for?
Back in the spring, former Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese government sent two reusable masks to every household in Japan. I wrote about receiving mine here.
I put mine aside and came across them again this week. As you can see they are about 5"x4", kind of small.
I don't like to see exposed noses and I think that if you try to talk when wearing a small mask, it might pull the mask down, exposing a naked nose. I did some basic stitching and added a little fabric across the bottom and am pleased with my own original mask.
What do you think?
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| Photo from the internet |
This week (June 17th to be exact), I received my Abenomasks. If you are not in Japan, you might be wondering "What are Abenomasks?"
"Abe" refers to Japan's Prime Minister Abe, "no" is the possessive in Japanese (like 's in English), and masks are, well, masks. This may also be something like the prime minister's economic policy, which is refered to as "Abenomics".
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| Prime Minister Abe |
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, everyone wanted masks, but they were in short supply. The Prime Minister announced every household would receive two washable, reusable masks from the Japanese government. It sounded like a great plan a few months ago. The government said the plan was reasonable in that it would help reduce the demand for disposable masks and ease public anxiety.
Many people complained about the cost (46.6 billion yen) and the small size and that two per household doesn't work for families. In addition, they took so long to be delivered that people made their own masks and now, masks are back on the store shelves, so the timing was a little off. I'm not complaining, although I don't think I will wear them. They are kind of small and they are thick (five layers), so I think too hot for summertime. I'm planning to put mine in my scrapbook as a souvenir of 2020, the Year of the Pandemic.
