It is known that the Japanese are a people who love to smile while they are in their workplaces, or in public places and facilities, but wearing masks for “three long years” seems to have had a negative impact on that habit.
According to the “Odity Central” website, many of the “country of the sun” have forgotten how to smile, and therefore they are in dire need of retraining to adapt their facial expressions.
Many of them enlisted the help of “smile teachers” to practice how to display their pearly whites again without feeling embarrassed or ashamed.
The sessions organized by the Akabane Center for the Elderly have been on the rise with more people requesting one-to-one lessons since the end of last year.
The number of applicants increased by 4.5 times after the media first reported in February 2023 that the Japanese government would end its recommendation that anti-coronavirus masks be worn.
Keiko Kawano, radio personality turned entrepreneur, told the Japan Times, “A smile is only a smile if it is expressed… Even if you are happy, if you don’t have those gestures on your face, your joy will not reach others.” .
-Kawano noted that she has taught “the art of smiling” to about 4,000 people so far, and has also helped train about 700 “smile specialists” since she started her new job in 2017.
-However, the demand for its services has increased recently after people started to give up wearing masks.
And she continued, “I heard from people saying that even if they managed to get rid of the masks, they would not be able to smile again.”
In the same vein, explains smile coach Miho Kitano. “Some say they see more wrinkles around their eyes after trying to smile and laugh again, or feel like their face is sagging because they haven’t used it as much before.”
Smile instructors like Kitano claim that it is literally like training other parts and muscles of the body, and therefore the facial muscles need to be trained.
For his part, one of the participants in the “Art of Smile” courses told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper: “Smiles are necessary for communication without a mask, and I want to apply what I learned about that in volunteer activities and other gatherings.”
