Wearing masks in the summer heat of Japan

While wearing a mask can protect you and others from infections masks can also pose a health risk in a hot and humid climate and as we all know Japan can get very hot and humid in summer. 

When wearing a mask it becomes a little harder to breathe, especially with thicker masks. Also, you rebreathe some of your own air which causes it to heat up a little.

I usually don’t wear masks in summer in Japan but this year wearing masks seems unavoidable. So far I didn’t have any problems when going out for a short time but when being outside for longer periods and when walking uphill I have encountered some breathing difficulties with my mask on.

On TV in Japan I already saw a few experts recommending taking off the mask when not in crowded spaces.  Tourists spots like Tokyo Disneyland announced that staff might not be wearing masks all the time in order to help prevent heatstroke.

Also, one should pay attention to the colour of the mask as some colours heat up faster than others. Light colours like white or yellow heat up slower, darker colours like black or blue heat up faster. It was also recommended to avoid direct contact with sunlight by using parasols.

As I am not an expert in either disease prevention or heatstroke prevention, I find it hard to decide when I should wear a mask and when it would be OK to take it off. While I am still young I assume that my body is able to deal with the heat and wearing masks to some extent but I am worried about the elder population. Every year there is news about elderly people dying of heatstroke in Japan.

Japanese fast-fashion brand Uniqlo recently started selling their own reusable masks branded under their AIRism mark that stands for lightweight and breathable clothing. AIRism is a well-known and popular brand in Japan, so it was no surprise that these masks were very popular. They resulted in enormous queues in front of the Uniqlo stores and were sold out immediately.

Where masks that help people to cope with the heat more easily sound like are a good idea, people queuing up to buy them during the coronavirus outbreak is probably not as it will result in close-contact situations. We can only hope that Uniqlo will come up with a better method to sell them.

Were you able to get one of the Uniqlo masks? What kind of masks do you like using in the summer?