How worried is Japan about Swine Flu?

TheCarver, be sure you don't miss Kevin's post which is very informative.

Thanks Kevin, sorry I didn't see your post for some reason. I hope nothing like that happens on my flight.

My advice is- don't worry about it. Apart from a few signs around reminding people to wash their hands and gargle properly and a slight increase in the normal number of mask-wearers you see around, life is quite normal here, and the number of new infections has decreased considerably- it is not something to spend a lot of time thinking about when you should just be looking forward to your holiday.

It's no big deal if it does happen on your flight :) I only feel sorry for the person coughing.

I notice in this mornings paper though that the Government has updated their swine flu status to "High Risk". I wouldn't expect this to have any impact coming into the country but when you depart it - maybe expect a delay :)

Thanks all for responses. I wont be worrying much bu I have really bad allergies and would hate for someone to assume my coughing was from something its not. Lets hope some medicine will work its magic and leave me with a great flight. I apologize if my posts are off topic, I just wanted to get a good know how of what is going on there to be prepared.

Hi everybody,

First of all, I would like to thank you for your informative answers.

I am a foreigner and I will participate in a trip to Japan in July. I have 2 questions.

1) Are most passengers in Narita Airport wearing masks?
2) There are about 390 cases in Japan now. Do Japanese people think that the flu has started to decrease? or they are still worried?

I am looking forward to your replies.

Thanks in advance.

There are about 390 cases in Japan now.

Almost all of them have recovered in the meantime. There are probably less than a dozen cases in Japan now.

Do Japanese people think that the flu has started to decrease? or they are still worried?

The media hysteria has finally ended after causing a lot of needless damage to the economy and the travel industry, in particular.

As for the masks question, some passengers are wearing masks and a lot of the staff, but this is something you would have seen if you had arrived in Japan last year, or 5 years ago, not only in the airport but also on the trains, at work, in the streets...

Japanese people often wear masks in their daily life- usually because they have allergies or colds, not just because of the flu, and they have done so for a long time.

It's been a week since a lot of schools in Japan started to decide that they can go ahead with their near-future school trips to the Kansai region, where the first patients were found. Also, I recall a news show saying that specialists have announced that the "peak" has passed. I think the flu has definitely slowed down, or in other words, have at least become "a normal thing".

On a related note, our city of Yokohama is celebrating its 150th anniversary of the opening of its port to the international world, and a windjammer from Mexico has arrived and is open to the public until this Friday, with no problem.

The cases that are found in Japan climbed to 485. Some schools are affected too as far as I know.

Is there a new wave of worry in Japan or everything is normal and under control?

Yesterday's increase was only 6 people countrywide. The spread has seemed to have slowed considerably, and wasn't really "out of control" as media coverage suggested. Also its rarely been front page news since North Korea's recent activities. So, no I wouldn't say that there is a new wave of worry, and things are more or less back to normal.

Actually, I have the impression that things got pretty much back to normal ever since they found patients in Greater Tokyo. It seems to me that the government decided that holding back school/nursery/business activities in a city as huge and as commercial as Tokyo is too much of a risk. And mass vaccine production is coming up anyway.

Hi everyone, I've been dreaming of making a long trip to Japan for 7 years now. In exactly one month it's finally going to go ahead.

I'm not at all worried about the Mexican flu. The thing I'm most worried about is that my stay there will feel like I'm in world biggest outdoor hospital. In other words: the street view being completely ruined by everyone walking with a face mask. Not really the way I imagined it. So how bad is it in Tokyo with the masks?

If you look up a few posts you'll find this has already been mentioned.

Japanese people have been wearing masks to prevent winter colds or help with pollen allergies for many years- if you had been in Japan last year before the world had heard of swine flu, you would still have seen Japanese people wearing masks because they always have.

In winter and spring especially, at any given time about 1 in 20-30 people is wearing a mask outdoors, and it is about the same now.

If you want to come to Japan, you will see people wearing masks, but no more right now than they ever have.

I've been to Tokyo 2 and a half years ago, and yes I've seen masks being worn by quite a few more people than what I'd call 'normal'. I'm from the Netherlands, here no one wears a mask, ever.

However, here on the news we see many images of japanese people wearing masks. I just heard in this same thread that the stores are running out of masks and that a month ago 1 in 10 people was wearing a mask. If it's just 1 in 10 I can definitely live with it, but if it's... let's say half the population, I'd start to get uncomfortable there.

If it's just 1 in 10 I can definitely live with it, but if it's... let's say half the population, I'd start to get uncomfortable there.

Don't worry yourself unnecessarily. 99.9% of the people wearing masks are perfectly healthy and wearing them to protect themselves. And those that are sick (and are aware of it) are at not in public. So the number of masks you see isn't an indication of a sick population.

Also think about this, as of today there are twice as many confirmed cases of swine flu per capita in the Netherlands than in Japan.

I've been to Tokyo 2 and a half years ago, and yes I've seen masks being worn by quite a few more people than what I'd call 'normal'. I'm from the Netherlands, here no one wears a mask, ever.

So what would normal be for someone coming from a country where people never wear masks? 0? As mentioned many times in this thread, masks are a common preventative measure for hay fever and allergies. Two far from infective malladies.

I know it's for people to protect themselves. Like I said, I'm not scared of the disease, so that's not my issue. My issue is only that if more than half of the people are wearing masks, it will destroy the street view. Now this may not be a big deal for many of you. But if you spend all your savings on a trip to a place where everyone looks like they are about to operate on someone, you'll get worried about it.

'Normal' is based on the situation I know, which is from 2,5 years ago when I was in Tokyo.

Takeshita87, I understand how you feel! I will be in Japan next month and I am also worried about the same thing!

Yes, people's wearing masks is in fact a good thing, but when you are walking around, you want to see people's faces. If many people are walking around with masks, it just makes you uncomfortable.

Especially, if I enter a shop and the salesman is wearing a mask, it wouldn't be a good sight. And also let's say, you want to take a picture in the street or a temple, there will be people who are wearing masks in the pic.

If the amount of people who are wearing masks is equal to the amount of last year, I won't worry. But if I am going to see people with masks everywhere, I may get a little bit uncomfortable.

Takeshita, people are stockpiling the masks in case they need them- I have actually heard some people saying that they don't want to wear their masks because they have been hard to get! Incidentally that was only the case for about 10 days or so, and now there are plenty of masks in the stores again.

I live in Tokyo, and I'll say it again- in my opinion there are no more people wearing masks now than there were this time last year. It is starting to get warm and humid and the majority of people don't want to wear masks in this kind of weather. Because this is Japan though, some do, as they always have.

I believe that most airport staff wear masks as they have a good reason to do so, but that's only at the airports.