Notice anything?

and  no 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 they're locked down 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 if 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

you  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 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

now 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 party

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

you