Fear and Loathing in Japan: "Most Tokyoites Wearing Respirator Masks Against Fukushima Radiation!" - Simple Historical Guide to Japanese Face Masks

In a quick follow up to yesterday's post about the totally unfounded, foaming at the mouth, stark raving mad rant about how the Japanese government has "secret plans to evacuate 'the 10 million people living in Tokyo'" due to Fukushima fallout - uh, psst! Don't look now, but there's at least 35 million people in Tokyo. (Please refer to Sensationalism, Scare Mongering and the Nanny State) I found this very interesting letter from some guy ranting about nuke fears in Tokyo that just goes to show how completely maniac and irrational people are when it comes to fear of the unknown (radiation and nuclear power). Well, I think it has to do with the fear of the unknown as all that sort of thing seems to make people so slobbering crazy. 

You know like, "Who knows what fears lie in the hearts of men? The shadow knows!"

Here is a totally hilarious and comical letter from some guy that I found yesterday. This really reminds me of something that an absolutely clueless dork would write about Japan: Get a laugh out of this:

"I just returned from a 9 day business trip to Tokyo Japan and most people in Tokyo are wearing respirator masks outdoors. They are very nervous and scared, and rightfully so. I was able to bring with me a thumb size miniature Geiger Counter, a bottle of KI03, and 2 masks for good measure. The Japanese government has made it illegal for Japanese to purchase Geiger Counters for personal use claiming they are made in the U.S. and are inaccurate. Now there is a steaming pile of freshly laid B.S.! I also brought my own freeze dried food and water. I’m not taking any chances, it is serious business over there."

Great. Just great. I wonder if this is real or just the imagination of Gomer or Goober fresh off the boat from bumf*ck Iowa? This can't be real, can it? For one, I just checked on Amazon Japan and they have dozens of Geiger counters on sale... You need me to buy one for you?

Scene at Narita. Customs Officer: "Is this your luggage, sir?"

Hillbilly: "Yes, sir. The Igloo cooler with the duct tape... That's mine!"  

To change the subject for a moment, when I was a liasion between foreigners and Japanese for a Japanese company in 1984, there was this guy that they had hired from the mid-west of the United States. He had been in Japan for only two months or so but we had to send him back to the USA because he had fallen into serious clinical depression. He couldn't function at all. Poor guy. One day he came to see me and admitted that Tokyo wasn't what he expected at all and he wanted to cancel his contract and go home. What did he expect Tokyo to be, pray tell? He told me that he had thought that in Japan that there would be samurai and geisha running around and when he came to Tokyo and everyone was wearing business suits and it was a big city "Like New York city with Chinese people" (his words, not mine) he couldn't handle it. Unbelievable, yeah? True story!


But I digress...


Look at that nonsense that guy wrote. Hard to believe that such a clueless person could be sent to Japan for "a business trip" which makes this letter very suspect. This guy is totally silly or he is hawking goods... Or, maybe he is a great science fiction writer and comic book genius like my friend Andrew at It's a Wonderful Rife!

Well, I'm not sure about people being scared and nervous in Tokyo. It sure seems to me that the average person here is completely oblivious to the dangers that lurk around the corner. But the claim about, "Most people are wearing respirator masks outdoors" is laughable.


No, they are not.  Let me demonstrate for you. They say a picture speaks a thousand words. 


This is a respirator:

This is a mask:

Now, I admit, there probably are people wearing respirators in Tokyo THIS VERY MOMENT (they work for the fire department and are trying to put out a fire). But I haven't seen any "regular people" doing so - and trust that most people don't wear respirators. Dumb-foreign-letter-writing-visitor-to-Japan doesn't know the difference between a mask and a respirator. Hasn't the guy ever been to a dentist? (Uh, judging from the teeth of the guy in the green shirt at the top - maybe not.)


Many, far from "most," Tokyoite Japanese are wearing masks. Why? Many people always do. They wear them so that they don't spread diseases or catch colds. This time of year there are a very many people wearing these things because it's spring. Interestingly, and a possible candidate for the next Ripley's Believe it or Not! Spring is also the time flowers bloom and weeds grow!!!... And, incredibly that means hay fever season! (Oohs and ahhs here, please)...


Off the subject again! One time I had a Japanese ask me if they had hay fever in other countries like America so don't think that it's only the Americans who have license to be absolutely clueless!


Take my wife, please! She has terrible hay-fever. This time of year she wears a mask all the time - even inside of the house. I wrote about that once in Spring in Japan. I've also written about dumb foreigners here in Stupid Foreigners in Japan - 97% of the Bad Apples Spoil it for the Rest of the 3% - When in Japan, Do As the Japanese Do In Spite of Yourself. That's who this article is for, actually... Dumb foreigners... 


This article does have redeeming and, I suspect, interesting content: It's the history of masks in Japan. The Japanese have been wearing these things for over a hundred years folks. I must admit that even I, in my supreme greatness - and as a half Japanese kid with a Japanese mom, was taken back by how many people wear these masks in places like Tokyo when I first arrived here (I thought they looked like bank robbers!) 


So, on that note, without further ado, may I present the Simple Historical Guide to Japanese Face Masks?


History of "the Mask":

Though masks were introduced from outside of Japan in the 1870's, actual production of these sorts of masks began in Japan in 1912 in the Taisho period. Masks were made for industrial use. They were cloth with a brass mesh. This brass mesh would rust which called into question the durability of the product. They didn't become popular amongst the general public until 1919.

In 1919, the masks began to be used by the general public due to the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic. Due to this epidemic overseas, the use of the masks in Japan by the general public boomed. Manufacturers could not keep up with demand (this still happens sometimes).

In 1923, the masks became indelibly a part of Japan after the Great Kanto Earthquake that devastated Tokyo and the subsequent fires, and tsunami, left over 182,000 people dead and another 40,000 missing. This caused a great fear of diseases and, as said, these masks then became a part of Japanese life forever. Soon after, a smart businessman named Takeshi Uchiyama made a patent for the "Soo mask" and became the number one seller of masks in Japan. Hooray for the free market!

An industry is born:


In 1933 and 1934 Influenza ravaged Japan and the world again. Once again, with the illness came a boom in mask use. As the years went by, the technology and designs of these masks became more and more advanced and, in 1948, the design using a single wire to bend to fit one's face was made and it's been basically the standard that is in use until this very day. 

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Boxes of cold remedies from the past. You can see that, in some pictures, the insinuation is that the cold medicines will allow one to remove the masks. 

Now, as everyone knows, the Japanese are world famous for cleanliness. You can see it in their streets and in the city. Even public bathrooms in Japan are much cleaner in general than what you see in the west. Many of the home toilets automatically flush or rinse one's derriere. There's even ones that open and close the covers and seats for you.


In public restrooms, women will often rinse off the knobs of the washlets for the next person. This doesn't disinfect them, of course, but it shows a courtesy that is uniquely Japanese. 

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

You'll often see Japanese wearing masks on trains and in the office as they do that as a matter of courtesy to other people too; they don't want to spread, nor catch colds... Every year, from about March to May and again from September to November and again during flu season, you will see a boom in people wearing these masks... And, during those times, masks might sell out... Especially if the mass media is spreading fear as in the case of the H1N1 flu that was supposed to kills millions of Japanese but wound up killing one old lady in Kyushu.


So when you come to Japan, Mr. or Mrs, Foreigner and you see Japanese people wearing masks, fear not! They most likely aren't doing it because of radioactive fallout or because they are about to knockoff a bank... It's probably not quite that exciting. They are wearing those masks because they have a runny nose, a cough or they don't want some old geezer on the train sneezing at them... The Japanese wear masks because they want to or have a need to; it's considered polite, proper courtesy and considerate to others. Thank god that many manufacturers offer many types and the sufficient amount to meet the consumer demand of the Japanese public.


If you do worry about nuclear fallout from Fukushima when you visit Tokyo then may I suggest not coming here at all or, if you must, at least get some rabies shots before you arrive. We already have a big enough problem with rabid, foaming at the mouth people as it is.

Much historical reference taken from www.mask.co.jp - Thanks!

Fukushima Disaster: The People of the Lie

"A lie told even ten thousands times never becomes the truth" - Mikhail Gorbachev


There are people in this world who are so desperate to be proven "right," at least in their own minds, that they would do, or hope for, most anything to achieve those ends. Some of these people are very mentally ill yet they fail to realize or see the shortcomings of their thinking. 

CARLY SIMON - YOU'RE SO VAIN

They are the People of the Lie. These people are all around us. They function in our society. We see them daily. These are the bosses at work who extoll the virtues of living right, telling the truth and working hard yet they are having an affair with another woman. 


These are the people who claim to be in search of the truth yet they commit lies at work and home. These are the wives and husbands who, on the surface, seem contented but actually commit domestic violence against their spouses and children.


These are the People of the Lie. These are also people who will do most anything or hope for ill fortune against others in order for them to get their desired gains.


The most extreme (traditional and much over-used) example of those sorts of people - people who will do anything to be proven correct - are political groups like the Nazis. These people were so sick that they would even kill others in an effort to be proven correct.


Recent modern day examples of these sorts of people were the hard-core believers in Man-Made Global Warming (AGW). I remember on a very popular morning FM radio show in Tokyo in 2006 when I was debunking the entire theory of AGW - after having Greenpeace members as guests on the program (who couldn't rectify their beliefs with scientific fact) - we received a telephone call from a very irate listener who firmly believed in Man- Made Global Warming. This listener was so furious that I would go on air and publicly debunk this polemic. 


He wanted to talk to the boss of the station. It was to his shock when I told him that I was the general manager of the station and if he didn't like what he heard on air there was something on the radio called a "tuner" and he should use it to change the station. He was so furious with that that he threatened to, "Come down to the radio station, set it on fire and burn it to the ground."


I told him that if he did that then we would have, "The police come down to your house, arrest you and send you to prison." Never heard from him again. 


I wonder if he still believes that AGW nonsense?


This is the kind of person who I classify as the People of the Lie; they will do anything to be proven correct, even if it means that people must be injured or die (of course not them) in order for that to happen.


The most recent example of this disgusting sickness, in many forms, is the current controversy about radiation from Fukushima. Specifically, how the Fukushima problem affects us in Tokyo, 230 kilometers away.


We've heard all sorts of stories; how Fukushima was going to make 1/3 of Japan uninhabitable; then it was half of Japan; there was going to be a nuclear winter, etc., etc.


I know one guy who, at the start of this entire affair, took his whole family and ran away to southern Japan. It was with glee when he announced on Facebook that they had found two TEPCO workers dead at the damaged reactors. He triumphantly wrote something to the effect of, "See? I was right. You are going to see more and  more dead guys like this coming out of there in the next few days and weeks."   


It was to his chagrin that I had to alert him to the fact that those two guys were killed because they drowned. When the tsunami hit, they were trapped underground and couldn't escape. Their deaths had nothing to do with radiation. Their bodies were covered in bruises and they had broken bones from being bashed around in a small room when the water came in and there was no way out.


May they rest in peace. Too bad some sick people are happy about their sorry lot.


To date, there haven't been any deaths directly related to radiation at Fukushima. It seems that, like Chernobyl, panic over radiation will cause much more damage than the actual radiation itself.


Yesterday, I wrote a post entitled Results of Geiger Counter Use in Tokyo that was about my factual research using a "professional use" Geiger counter in various places in and around town. I could not find any elevated levels of radiation even though I went to several major areas in this city. The levels were all lower than regular levels in Hong Kong and in some UK cities. I wrote:


The readings have all been between 0.07 mSV/hr to 0.13 mSV/hr. A flight on a commercial jet airplane from Tokyo to New York will expose you to about 190 mSV (about 18.0 mSV/hr) so you can see that the current levels are not be worried about. Unless, of course, you are the worrying sort.  


Yet, even with my merely reporting the facts, some people want to take me to task and argue with me for doing so. Since this post is not about people's lack of critical reading skills or lack of analytical thinking abilities (I've covered that here: Critical and Analytical Thinking are Lost Arts Amongst Many of Today's Adult Population) I will stick with the subject and that is an examination of the People of the Lie; People who are so desperate to be "right" that they will do anything or desire anything so that they can be  proven correct.


One such person is a reader who is so desperate for this that it seems he hopes radiation is at dangerous levels and many men, women and children in Tokyo do get deathly ill so that he can say later, "I told you so." I don't think it is a problem using his pen name since it is a moniker. His handle is Richardw. He commented:


The question is not what readings you found - but which areas you didn't read that others have found high levels in. Why is it your call to say no big deal? You are a shill - and you are doing a good job of protecting the industry. Hope it goes well for you. Nice to see you work for the industry that TEPCO is known for funding. Well done - Marketing suits you.


Richardw's lack of reasoning skills are so faulty that I don't know where to begin. Richardw accuses me of being a "shill - and you are doing a good job of protecting the industry." And to what basis does he make these claims? Because I reported factually and truthfully what the readings of the Geiger counter I used showed!? Astounding! 


Do tell, Richardw, how does that make me a shill? Would you have been happier if I lied and made up wild claims of dangerous radiation in Tokyo? It seems you would.


The knee-jerk reaction and excuse of most of these people like Richardw is that TEPCO lies. Well, it is known and a matter of public record that TEPCO has lied about many things in the past. There is no debate and argument about that. There is, though, argument about what they lied about in this most recent case at Fukushima. For example, the charges that TEPCO lied about meltdowns at the reactor cores as early as March 18th. There was conjecture that the cores may have melted down at that time. Even TEPCO's own records show that there was this possibility, but until the radioactive release and danger was brought under more control, these claims could not be verified. That TEPCO did not announce unverified information does not constitute a lie. Unverified information is just that; it is conjecture. Public companies handling a nuclear crisis have a responsibility to tell the truth. They do not and should not go on the mass media making pronouncements of unverified claims. That would be most irresponsible.


Once again, we must only deal with known facts. I always want to deal with facts. My post was factual. What else is there?


What is the motivation for being one of the People of the Lie?


Either way, like I said, TEPCO has lied. That is a known fact and in the public domain. Lying is a very bad thing and should not be easily forgiven. TEPCO's motivations for lying are for money and lying to protect people's job's and their own, as well as the livelihoods of their employees and their families. 


That being said, these motivations for TEPCO's lying are easily recognizable, and, in a way, very understandable.  


Motivations for people like Richardw, on the other hand, are more difficult to pin down. But, in my opinion, once you do recognize then for what they are, they are even more ugly, disgusting and grotesque than TEPCO's simple-minded motivations.


Like my friend who ran away to southern Japan, these people are so "sick" that they desperately want people to suffer or die in order to be proven correct. The fact of the matter is that People of the Lie, like Richardw, want to be proven correct for nothing else but to be able to say, "I told you so." It is nothing short of narcissism and the twisted vanity of a psychopath. 


Trust that, even though they fail to realize it, the fact is that people like the ones who lied at TEPCO and people like Richardw are actually birds of a feather. 


They all are truly People of the Lie.  

To read more on the concept of the People of the Lie, I recommend F. Scott Peck's bestselling book, "People of the Lie - the Hope for Healing Human Evil"

Results of Geiger Counter Use in Tokyo

I finally got my Geiger counter! It arrived in the mail three days ago. I've been running around all over Tokyo with it, wherever I go, looking for hidden, deadly, mutating radiation. 

KRAFTWERK - DENTAKU

Ai-yai-yai-yai.... So far, no luck.


I've been all over Setagaya-ku, Shibuya, Harajuku and Chiyoda-ku... (sung to the melody of Frank Sinatra's "Down South of the Border (Down Mexico Way))" Hamamatsu-cho and down Shinagawa way! 


No sign of deadly radiation.


The readings have all been between 0.07 mSV/hr to 0.13 mSV/hr. A flight on a commercial jet airplane from Tokyo to New York will expose you to about 190 mSV (about 18.0 mSV/hr) so you can see that the current levels are not be worried about. Unless, of course, you are the worrying sort.

0.10... No problemo

You can read more techy stuff about radiation measurements here. If you check the link at the top of the page of this blog, you can see what the daily levels of radiation are in Tokyo as read by a private scientific institution.


The level of radiation in Tokyo today, even after this March 11 disaster, is still lower than Rome, Italy or Hong Kong. This reports, from the height of the disaster no less, came from Bloomberg:

Hong Kong, Cornwall Radiation Beats Tokyo Even After Japan Nuclear Crisis

Typical amounts of radiation in Hong Kong exceed those in Tokyo even as workers struggle to contain a crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, indicating concerns about spreading contamination may be overblown.

The radiation level in central Tokyo reached a high of 0.109 microsieverts per hour in Shinjuku Ward yesterday, data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health show. That compares with 0.14 microsieverts in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Observatory said on its website. A person is exposed to 50 microsieverts from a typical x-ray.

Many countries have naturally occurring radiation levels that exceed Tokyo’s, said Bob Bury, former clinical lead for the U.K.’s Royal College of Radiologists. A 30-fold surge in such contamination in Tokyo prompted thousands of expatriates to leave Japan after the March 11 tsunami knocked out power at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, triggering the crisis. Radiation in Tokyo is barely above levels in London and New York even now, analysts said.

“The situation in Japan looks set to follow the pattern of Chernobyl, where fear of radiation did far more damage than the radiation itself,” Bury said in an e-mail referring to the 1986 accident in the former Soviet Union, the world’s worst nuclear disaster. “Whatever the radiation in Tokyo at the moment, you can be fairly sure it is lower than natural background levels in many parts of the world.”

Here you can see daily radiation levels in Hong Kong that are on par or higher than Tokyo.

I laughed when I read the above because many corporations and foreigners in Japan pulled up their stakes and moved to China after the disaster because of fears of radiation. Just goes to show how poorly people use critical reading skills (or lack thereof) along with analytical thinking abilities (or lack thereof).

It has been well known for decades that many Chinese cities and townships have extremely high background radiation levels compared with most of the world and even the Chinese government has recognized the problem for decades. And still many foreigners left Japan to go to China because of radiation fears? Excellent risk management and risk assessment abilities of the western management of those companies.

I'm sure they will do well in China!

But this post is not about China, it is about radiation in Tokyo. 

Many people say that we cannot believe what the government says about radiation. Even though I link to private scientific institutions, some naysayers still don't believe that. OK. I bought a Geiger counter. I've checked for myself. I've even hoped to find some bizarre glowing green globules of irradiated gook. I've looked everywhere.

Nope can't find them. At least not here in Tokyo.

There are even some pundits and scientists who go on the mass media and say idiotic things like, "There are no safe levels of radiation! Period!"

Well, believe what you want. If what these scientists and other fools say is true, then we all  better stay indoors and hide under our blankets for the rest of our lives. Why? Don't look now, but there's a giant ball of fire in the sky that shoots massive amounts of evil radiation at us EVERY SINGLE DAY...


Trust that if you were so daft as to stand directly out in the blistering sun everyday, with no protection, it most assuredly would be damaging to your health. 


As far as I'm concerned, I've got my Geiger counter and I can't find anything at all to worry about in Tokyo... On the other hand, when I show it to people at work, the cute girls all want to see it and play with it when I show them the device. So it is good for something.


I feel like I wasted a bunch of money on an expensive device as I cannot find any deadly radiation.... I'm married so it's too late, but I can see a good use for a Geiger counter in Tokyo... 


Having a Geiger counter in Tokyo, from my research, shows no radiation levels in Tokyo to be concerned about, but results show that having one sure seems like a great way to pick up on girls!