Despite suffering large numbers of COVID-19 deaths and infections, many people in Europe abandoned basic precautions such as masks, social distancing, and handwashing once lockdown restrictions were eased.
Drawing on her experience of living in Britain and Italy, Mayumi Tanimoto explains why Japan’s standards of hygiene and everyday habits have attracted worldwide praise.

June 29, 2020
Even inside shops, people completely ignore social distancing, crowd together, and talk endlessly.
They do not disinfect their hands.
Even when disinfectant is provided, they ignore it.
To begin with, they do not normally wash their hands before eating.
The following is taken from an essay by Mayumi Tanimoto entitled “Mr. Abe, Nice Guy! This Has Nothing to Do with the Right or the Left. People of Japan, These Are the Genuine Voices from Overseas!” published in the monthly magazine WiLL, which went on sale on June 26.
The monthly magazine WiLL is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but also for people throughout the world.
Anyone who has not yet subscribed should immediately head to the nearest bookstore.
That is because it is filled with genuine essays such as this one.
And yet, it costs only 920 yen, including consumption tax.
People Overseas Who Praise Japan
Europeans Routinely Ignore the “Three Cs”
Why is Japan receiving so much praise, and why is Japanese food attracting so much attention?
Anyone currently living in Britain, elsewhere in Europe, or in North America can understand the reason very clearly.
For example, even in mid-June, Britain was still recording nearly 200 deaths a day.
However, because the lockdown had been eased, ordinary people were already behaving as though the coronavirus had disappeared.
This was not limited to Britain.
The same was true in Italy, France, Germany, and other countries.
Despite recording numbers of deaths and infections that were on an entirely different scale from those in Japan, these countries had no choice but to ease their lockdowns for fear of economic collapse.
Rules requiring two metres of social distancing and prohibiting gatherings technically remained in place.
However, large numbers of people had grown thoroughly tired of lockdown life.
The rules had already become meaningless, and violations were occurring everywhere.
People were breaking every rule against the “Three Cs,” creating one crowded, close-contact, confined situation after another.
In Britain, schools also reopened on June 1.
Astonishingly, many schools prohibited masks or refused to recommend them.
Wearing masks on buses, trains, and other forms of public transport was made “compulsory.”
However, the rules were enforced so casually that Japan’s so-called mask police would probably have fainted at the sight.
Not many people wore their masks properly.
On the streets and in shops, virtually no one wore a mask.
Even inside shops, people completely ignored social distancing, crowded together, and talked endlessly.
They did not disinfect their hands.
Even when disinfectant was provided, they ignored it.
To begin with, they did not normally wash their hands before eating.
People wore outdoor shoes inside schools.
Kindergarten children sat or lay down on carpets over which people had walked in their shoes.
Even the toilets in luxury department stores were in a dreadful condition.
For some reason, the floors might be flooded with urine, or the toilets might not have been flushed.
They were an absolute mess.
Before one could even discuss whether people used them cleanly, the toilet seats were often cracked and the facilities were full of faults.
The conditions went far beyond merely being unhygienic.
People ate sandwiches and apples on trains and buses without washing their hands.
In somewhat rougher areas, they simply threw their rubbish onto the floor.
It was not unusual to see buses with KFC chicken bones spat out and left lying on the floor.
Even the inside of lifts was filthy.
The handrails were sticky.
The floors of restaurants, fast-food outlets, and cinemas were covered in rubbish and food scraps.
Parents and children alike simply walked away without cleaning up after themselves.
School desks and stationery were also sticky with grime.
This was not limited to Britain.
Conditions were not greatly different in Italy, where I lived for four years, or in other European countries.
Even Germany, supposedly known for its meticulousness, raises questions about its standards of hygiene.
The basic ideas of not inconveniencing others and keeping the streets clean are missing.
Yet, anyone who washes their hands before eating out is treated by those around them as “someone who is far too obsessive and slightly insane.”
In fact, even before the coronavirus outbreak, I carried medical wipes and alcohol disinfectant with me.
Whenever I ate out, I always disinfected the table and chairs and washed my hands.
At gatherings with other mothers, people sometimes stared at me in shock.
My parents-in-law told me that I was “far too obsessive.”
We even argued over that issue and my rule prohibiting outdoor shoes inside the house.
To be continued.