I am visiting Tokyo in late September. I have read that there is no requirement to wear a face mask out in public, unless it is really crowded. But do people still wear face masks most of the time anyway?
I am ready to follow the rules, and as they say When in Rome…, but I must admit I prefer to wear a face mask as little as possible.
What is your recommendation?
The majority of parts in Tokyo is crowded.
When-in-rome thing may now as well turn to when-in-tokyo thing. ;-) People in Rome don't do the masking these days, do they? Rather than caused by a sense of security on your health, masking is now for dodging peer pressure in MY case. Yes, the government still turns its wary eyes toward the spread of BA.5, so do many Japanese.
Now, let me give you a little example here: JR Tokai, (one of the Japan Railways), who have a golden thumb for their bullet train network (between Tokyo and Osaka), never fall to make on-board announcements/requests for their passengers in a very polite manner:
1)mask-wearing while on (and off) board (including/inside station complexes)
2)infrequent conversations (and that with reserve)
3)no rotation of (rotatable) seats (in case you want face-to-face talks)
The 3 things above stand to reason (to the ears of most if not all of the Japanese) when the voice says: all of these are for our valuable customers to use our services for the shinkansen ride with peace of mind.
Btw, most every announcement ever made, be it your flight, train, department/supermarket shopping, never ends without an apologetic (though cookie-cutter) remark, like: we are sorry for the inconvenience caused. Thank you for your patience/cooperation.
On a bit more less serious note, I guess this doesn't ask too much of overseas tourists: strangers should keep their distances when in public places, particularly if in congregated closed spaces. Yes, nigh on impossible when you're on a morning/evening commuter train. Yet, unlike in pre-covid days, people tend to not squeeze in in elevators when they're nearly full, the way I see them. Depends, as many sets (all in pairs) of neatly-arranged and paint-marked footprints as thought for proper spaces/capacities, are located on the floors of the elevator cabins. Talking of that paint-marked stuff, you'll come to know same goes with the check counters/cashiers at convenience stores, where masked customers stand on a set of marks each, waiting for their turn. Problem is, a tall line of shelves sometimes blocks your view and you make a beeline to directly approach there. not knowing you're trying to jump the queue. Such an embarrassing moment. But when that happens to me, I can hear me talking to mysef: it's not as if you dropped in at Inconvenience Store...
Speaking of conbini (a term coined by someone, and probably used soley, in Japan; yet, everyone says so when they mean convenience store; you can go by with that simpler word when wanting to ask a local to direct you to one), they put on the hooks multiple sets of different face masks for you to choose from. Sure you say you'll bring yours, but just in case. That said, you may or may not be able to find one that fits you, since average head sizes, together with lengths of straps, are probably not exactly the same (between Norway and Japan). At one time, I got a package of kids' size inadvertently. Try-on is not doable, you know.
As you may expect, most every customer wears a mask to conbinis, umm, yes, their notice saying like "kindly wear your mask; sorry for your inconvenience but thanks for your cooperation." But not that they're asking, but customers think that's (pretty much) the norm, and that they feel they're better off wearing theirs (peer pressure or not). No, mask-less customers don't get stared at, neither are they rejected coming in where I live. But should you get a fit of coughing, I'm not that sure...
If you want to know what the average Japanese is actually doing in Tokyo now, you can go to Youtube and look at some of the recent videos. For example, this one was uploaded by someone 8 hours ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXSrJjlErzc
Or this one from 8 days ago:
Shibuya is not a typical places to pick out. These days it is about 30 ℃ so some are taking them off because of the heat but nearly 98 percent is wearing them on trains and more than 90 percent even outdoors with exception of people on bicycles and some foreign tourists and expats. in Tokyo.
Edited: 1 year agoMask wearing is still around 98-99% in public.
The most common places people are not wearing masks are in suburban streets (typically empty).
Contributor 
19,641 posts
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2,352 helpful votes It depends on the specific location and occasion in my experience of the past few months. As mentioned above, most wear it in city centre, including street. Exceptions are jogging and exercise in Ohori Park as well as in my neighborhood, especially after sunset (It's still hot during daytime for exercise). Miyajima Misen and Himeji Shoshazan hike were the same.
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Contributor
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416 helpful votes Let me ask you this. Where are you required to wear a mask by law or a regulation? I’m talking about places you’ll be denied entry without a mask.
In most countries it has been legally required to wear masks indoors, until several months ago (or last year). Also it was, and sometimes is, so aboard planes. In the US the airplane mask mandate was struck down this spring. Last I knew for flights to/from Germany it was (is?) still legally required, but not in the rest of EU I believe. In Korea indoor mask mandate is still in place. It's been so in most of the world, but most of those laws have been long ago repealed and are no longer present (with some exceptions).
