Amid Pressure to Wear Masks, People with Hypersensitivity Suffer

Tokyo, Feb. 8 (Jiji Press)--People who cannot wear face masks due to hypersensitivity and other conditions are finding difficulty in gaining understanding as social pressure to wear masks mounts amid Japan's second state of emergency over the novel coronavirus epidemic. "If I don't wear a mask, does that make me unpatriotic?" said a 40-year-old woman from Shinjuku Ward in Tokyo, who suffers from hypersensitivity. The woman had previously been wearing face masks made of urethane, as her skin reacted badly to surgical-style masks. She was pressured into wearing the surgical kind since January, however, due to claims that urethane masks are not enough to prevent infections. Combined with the stress of having to wear masks, she has been suffering from rough skin as a result. "I am scared of the 'mask police,'" who pressure people into wearing masks, she said. "I wish they would learn about people who find it difficult to wear masks." A 28-year-old woman from the city of Musashino in Tokyo was embroiled in an incident last November that involved one such person. The woman began to hyperventilate while she was riding a bus, and removed her mask. An elderly man then shouted at her to put the mask on, and chased her even after she got off the bus. She has since been prescribed psychiatric drugs to cope with the trauma. In order to gain understanding for the struggles faced by those who cannot wear masks, Jiei Kato, 14, created a card in April last year to alert others to the condition. The junior high school student from Narashino in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, is distributing the cards for free on his website. "I wish people would understand our difficulty in wearing masks, just like all people have some kind of difficulties or dislikes," said Kato, who also proposed the use of a "fan mask" to cover one's mouth during conversations instead of wearing a mask. Hypersensitivity is thought to be common among those with developmental disorders. According to a survey by the National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities taken in July and August last year, 56 pct of respondents with developmental disorders said that they found it difficult to wear masks or that they were wearing masks despite not wanting to. "Hypersensitivity is a condition, not a disease, and it is an issue of how the brain feels," Makoto Wada, head of research on developmental disorders at the center, said. "It varies greatly by individual, and there is no established method for improvement." "It is not the case that these people are being selfish or impatient," Wada said. END