This is downtown, Tokyo, Shibuya.
Notice anything?
Now, I'm not referring to the man with the red shoes and the hot pink beard
it is in fact that there are so few people
and this is Halloween
I would say it's roughly a quarter of what you would usually expect
And everyone almost everyone
is wearing a mask
Welcome to japan's new normal
2020 is the year of the pandemic of the coronavirus
and everywhere around the world people are having to deal with it
Japan is no different
They've had the lockdown and a lot of people are doing much more remote work,
something they've never had to do in the past
there's a lot of unique situations happening right now that are a first
for the Japanese culture to deal with,
but they are...
So, in this video i'd like to talk to you about
What is this new normal?
As the pandemic touches every part of the Japanese lifestyle
what are they doing to adapt and to overcome this very difficult challenge
that is affecting all of us right now?
So, the Japanese work culture was going to change
very close behind that was going to be the restaurant culture as well
because as much as japanese people love to work they love to eat
and when you would go out before you would usually get something called an oshibori
and that's a hot wet towel usually that you get before your meal
to clean your hands, and it's nice and sanitary.
But now, because people are so frequently wearing masks out
they're providing in restaurants mask cases
so you can store them until you leave
and a lot of people aren't always using something like the disposable
They'll use one like i have where it's washable and reusable
so having a case where you can put it away during the course of your meal is really convenient.
Not all measures that can fight back against the virus have to necessarily be super high tech
In fact, one of the ones that they use now less so at restaurants
but more at special events public events things like that.
gyms...is a tracking list.
So if you go into a public event
what they'll request that you do is actually write down your name, your address, and so.
If there were an incident reported where somebody had contracted COVID at that special event,
they can then let any of the participants know that that is the case
and then you can go and have yourself tested
Low-tech yes, but quite effective. And it does allow people to take a measure of security,
knowing that when they've gone to this special event
you know that they're taking it seriously
and if something were to go wrong that there is a recourse for that
and hopefully afterwards you're still protected
it wouldn't be a modern pandemic if there weren't an APP to battle the virus
and Japan certainly has theirs
Oddly named COCOA, given that cocoa is the ingredient that creates chocolate,
which is both delicious and desirable,
and COVID is everything the opposite of that.
The naming convention doesn't diminish its effectiveness.
It works by having each user register on the application
and then if any of those users were within one meter of each other
in an excess of 15 minutes and then contracted the virus
all the people who are in that similar proximity to each other
will be notified.
The Japanese bathroom, or perhaps more specifically the Japanese toilet,
has become a cultural trope worldwide.
known for being super high-tech and providing you with the latest in technology
from the most accommodating bidet to perhaps talking you down from the edge of a really bad experience at work.
but not always going high-tech is the solution in Japan here for the problem of the virus and
in fact it's going the reverse direction,
It's getting more practical and removing some of these more complex amenities
It's not complexity we need, it's a lack of it
that prevents the spread.
So when you go into the bathrooms here, you actually notice that things like the automatic hand dryers that used to be there before
are either covered up or removed
And there's the expectation now that you would bring something like your own hand towel
or paper towels.
i know this for a fact at my gym that you can no longer use the hand dryer.
They've gone more analog.
and it seems to be helping.
Traditional office work be repressed.
People have had to work from home they've had to work remotely
Where you've seen actually the virus have an accelerant effect then on other businesses
is in the delivery service model
So before in Tokyo you used to see a few Uber Eats bicycles riding around
Now they're absolutely ubiquitous
it's hard to go out without tripping over them
and it's not just Uber Eats now.
It's kfc, it's mcdonald's
It's all these different chains
So interesting to note where in some cases it has repressed certain types of businesses
But in others they're now absolutely booming as a result of it
Perhaps more than hot
Japanese summer is really really humid
It's brutal
You're sweating the moment you step outside
And it was really a challenge for me
when I first came from living in Vancouver
Where for the two months of the year where we get good weather
It's perfect temperature It's perfect humidity
It's a challenge
But last summer it was so notable that when you walked around everyone was wearing one of these
And I thought that was particularly cool for the fact that it's one thing when it's cool to wear one of these
And it's not such a discomfort
But that kind of humidity to still see people going out and wearing masks and protecting each other was really really significant
You have in the Japanese culture already this sense that when you're sick you should wear a mask
You see it all the time
If you're at an office if you're at a school and so i think people were willing to take this upon themselves
But whereas before it was i'm going to protect you from the fact that i have a cold
Bow it could run both ways.
I'm going to protect myself and protect others
So an underlying cultural strength that certainly has had a significant impact on the spread of the virus
If the virus has taught us anything it's the incredible resilience of humankind
when challenged to find a new place to drink together
when their original locales and gathering spots have been threatened
i am of course talking about the Zoom nomikai or Zoom drinking part
that people are now doing where a lot of people of course use that for remote work
Many people as well are using it to meet up with friends that they haven't been able to see so often
because of social distancing
And from birthday parties to business parties you name it people are meeting up online
and making use of that technology in a social way
Over the past year you've seen japan take so many different precautions
From the increase in the number of masks that are being worn
to the availability of alcoholic gels,
to so many people sheltering in place doing the sort of remote work that they've never done before
Could you definitively say whether these precautions have led to some of the lowest death rates in the world for covet 19
It's difficult to say it's hard to say there's a lot of contributing factors there
But you could say with certainty that it has given people some sense of community and security
and that we're all in this together.
Which I would say is quite a traditionally Japanese virtue
value even
And whatever comes in the coming months
that will continue this feeling like we're gonna get through this,
and we're gonna get through this together.
Thanks for watching