A lot of the undercurrent of the response when I state "masks don't work on respiratory viruses" is that I am a bad, selfish person. That's how they roped in a lot of people into doing it. It feels good to do something that on face value makes sense. After all, the surgeon wears a mask in the OR! It is a minor inconvenience, what could it hurt? Even helping a little helps a lot. It's not for me it's for everyone around me.
Japan is fighting a bigger uphill battle than here in the states because masking is a part of your culture. It isn't here. That by the way was another pro mask rant. "Tha Japanese culture did it, so why can't we?" but in the states we have this "if it feels good, do it" vibe. And that's where it gets cultural with us. For a lot of them, it feels good to mask.
Correct on all points. Being different in any way is immoral in Japan, so that has always played against anti maskers.
That it feels good to anyone who masks is one thing I can never understand. I absolutely hated having to wear respirators when my ship was in the yards. Constant bad headaches and brain fog from day one. Masks aren’t as bad, but plenty bad enough. Reminds me a lot of people who wear fake eyeglasses as a fashion statement. I did not wear glasses until in my 20s. I HATE having to wear them. They are uncomfortable, sometimes painful, distracting, annoying and in the way. I broke mine in half 3 times in the first few months I wore them as I was not used to them. I still occasionally send them flying as I take something slung over my shoulder off as the sling catches them. But, people do wear false glasses for fashion.
Unlike fake eyeglasses masks are a public health nuisance.
I wear glasses, and I have rolled over on my fair share of pairs of them. I have this pair of wire frames where one of the arm covers has broken off, it is good for opening packages and also resetting alarm systems if I need to.
Being different. That makes us round eye Gaijin's even worse because we are intrinsically different.
I grew up with Yankee parents. There is an old tape of me speaking with a really thick southern accent as a kid. I burned a lot of calories getting rid of it, but still it emerges when I get emotional.
Yep. Fixin to go fishin' I think I can do a pretty passable southern accent when I want to sink into one. Just, depending on the type, it doesn't make those of us sound very sophisticated.
Growing up, the one word that would grate on me spoken with a southern accent was "schoo." Schoo was where you went to get an education each day. And to hear it was like fingers on a chalkboard.
As far as sophistication goes. There was this guy who was majoring in physics from Valdosta. The way he spoke though, you would never know it.
I had a roommate once named "Red" Red was a short pdugy guy who at times would leave his door open and you could see him eating a plate full of BBQ wearing only underwear. Red spoke like Boomhauer from "King Of The Hill" A whole bunch of colliding syllables with "knowwhatimeanjimma?" at the end of them. I had no idea what he would say, so I simply nodded.
Inhaling microfibers and microplastics is a real problem with wearing masks, but hey, as long as you go along with the crazy, virtue signally will protect your lungs!!
Yep, for the first time, plastic fibers are turning up in lung tissue of vast numbers of the living. But no one cares, except for we conspiracy theorists.
If they can't sell enough ads that they have to put public service messages on the train in a prime position that's really bad. I see that poster is sponsored by http://www.jametro.or.jp/ which is the "Japan Subway Association" i.e. the trade association that the company whose train you are on belongs to.
The putting up of public service announcements to hide the fact that no one is advertising anymore is also not new, just more common now. And….again, this in Tokyo. No shortage of potential advertisers here, I would think.
I never learned the costs but have heard some of what goes into the pricing. The top three are, of course location, location and location with lots of effort going into to determining where to get the most eyeballs on the ad. Then of course, how many ads. There are the occasional entire car or even train where everything aboard it, inside and out are part of the ad buy. THAT must cost a hell of a lot, I’d think.
Also, is it a local or express train, station of first departure and final destination also figures in. Time of day too. The actual price listing is probably fairly easy to find but all what goes into it is quite remarkable. If you are interested, I might be able to get an idea from one of my current students.
What I learned about advertising in Japan was not what I expected. The revelations are so shocking to me that I do not know where to begin. Let’s start with general info and then more specific on my client’s use of advertising.
First, there is NO correlation to visibility in ads and increases in foot traffic. Posters on trains, billboards and the like, do not increase the number of customers who pass through the doors. He did not know how much it would cost for posters on the train but said it must be a huge amount as the price to advertise at a station is unbelievable high. 4 million yen for ads that cover both walls of an escalator and possibly the steps at one train station.
My student’s business rarely buys ads, relying on word of mouth. As there are always lines to get in, this obviously works for them.
Despite there being NO economic benefit to advertising on the trains, he would love to be able to do so. When I question him on this, he laughed and said that it would be great to be able to do so, to be able to your company advertising on a Tokyo train. Status symbol only, it seems.
He did agree that the disappearance of ads on trains is most likely due to the economy. There are other factors of course, but that is the biggest in his view.
On the contrary, he is the CEO of a food service company and this type of discussion is right on topic for him. Thanks for the suggested material. Cannot promise I’ll be able to get to it tomorrow, but I might.
I have been noticing lately that there are increasingly fewer such ads and have been wanting to write a post on this fact but the trains had been crowded for me to get a good pic. This train did have other ads, but very few. The ones they did had up were right next to the doors.
This is true on busses too, but they have less ad space to begin with.
Makes sense that there are no ads as more people end up more deeply sunken into their phones or similar. Probably better to aim for that ESG cash or relations with its politicians.
Looking at their finances, if I'm reading it right, it looks like they lost around 13.5 million yen in membership fees back in 2020. Which moved their balance from -1 million yen to -9.8 million yen.
Finally in 2023 they gained back 6.3 million yen in member fees, but that only got them to -8 million yen in balance.
The economy is certainly good for mask-producing companies, and this ad will certainly help their bottom line by controlling those who choose not to think for themselves. I do believe that such companies are involved in these ads. I also believe that the media can instill sudden fear in our weak-minded friends by simply mentioning an increase in coof numbers. I refuse to say that C- word because it is just a rebranding of the common cold. Anyway, keep up the good work and keep ruining it for those that actually deserve it.
With iPhones (and others) who has time to read an advertisement. I'm surprised there are any advertisements at all. Just public service messages telling you to put on your mask. Even cigarette advertising s telling you to wear a mask, to pull it down for inhaling, but breathe out through it. You know how fast that ruins a mask, oh, but we have another for you!
Could be, but I think this is a minority. I do not have an idiot phone, but I do have iPads. I am online with my iPads on the train if I have room enough to use it and I am standing. If I am able to sit and decide to do so, I usually fall asleep. Japanese are sleep deprived. Most I know, think that 6 hours of sleep a night is the maximum needed, less is better.
Face it, you are iPhone deprived, not sleep deprived.
Check with the people on the train, the ones that go to sleep, they go to sleep because the train doesn’t offer them good reception or the don’t have it.
No blockbuster movie releases on the train, even though the iPhone has only a 6 inch screen!
A week ago Wednesday I gave my anti mask speech to two classes classes of 1st year medical students at a med school that still requires masks and where I do not wear a mask. This Wednesday, most were still masked. As the next lesson is 7 weeks from now, after summer vacation, it is possible that they will replace me for not following the rules, of which masking is just one I am not onboard with.
The nursing students are the same. Was bared from campus for one nursing school and had to finish the school year, my last there online because I would not mask.
I think only 3 of my current 16 nursing students, different school, were unmasked on Wednesday.
At least one of my med students filed a formal complaint against me last year for not masking. The first complaint I know of in my 20 years at that school.
What kind of doctors and nurses are these going to be? The ones that survive multiple rounds of clots shots and other vaccines known to be dangerous and years of masking, that is.
This may be a reason for yen manipulation, but it is not the only reason. Despite all the fuss on “over tourism”, there are not more gaijin here (yet?) than planned on before the panic. It is just that after not allowing any in for around 4 years, they suddenly let just about anyone in. So, after we got used to the unnaturally empty and quite streets, we are suddenly flooded with normal numbers of tourists with a greater portion being from abroad and less domestic due to the economic realities.
On the other side of the ledger, we have more foreign families allowed in and from parts of the world whose immigrants in European counties have been wrecking havoc and these are being let in after efforts to destroy indigenous festivals and culture.
A lot of the undercurrent of the response when I state "masks don't work on respiratory viruses" is that I am a bad, selfish person. That's how they roped in a lot of people into doing it. It feels good to do something that on face value makes sense. After all, the surgeon wears a mask in the OR! It is a minor inconvenience, what could it hurt? Even helping a little helps a lot. It's not for me it's for everyone around me.
Japan is fighting a bigger uphill battle than here in the states because masking is a part of your culture. It isn't here. That by the way was another pro mask rant. "Tha Japanese culture did it, so why can't we?" but in the states we have this "if it feels good, do it" vibe. And that's where it gets cultural with us. For a lot of them, it feels good to mask.
Correct on all points. Being different in any way is immoral in Japan, so that has always played against anti maskers.
That it feels good to anyone who masks is one thing I can never understand. I absolutely hated having to wear respirators when my ship was in the yards. Constant bad headaches and brain fog from day one. Masks aren’t as bad, but plenty bad enough. Reminds me a lot of people who wear fake eyeglasses as a fashion statement. I did not wear glasses until in my 20s. I HATE having to wear them. They are uncomfortable, sometimes painful, distracting, annoying and in the way. I broke mine in half 3 times in the first few months I wore them as I was not used to them. I still occasionally send them flying as I take something slung over my shoulder off as the sling catches them. But, people do wear false glasses for fashion.
Unlike fake eyeglasses masks are a public health nuisance.
I wear glasses, and I have rolled over on my fair share of pairs of them. I have this pair of wire frames where one of the arm covers has broken off, it is good for opening packages and also resetting alarm systems if I need to.
Being different. That makes us round eye Gaijin's even worse because we are intrinsically different.
Yep. Gaijin are like Yankees in the south. There are two kinds, and I know you know these. Same here in Japan with Gaijin.
I grew up with Yankee parents. There is an old tape of me speaking with a really thick southern accent as a kid. I burned a lot of calories getting rid of it, but still it emerges when I get emotional.
Ah, ya got rid of your “fixin to” and “liken as”?
Yep. Fixin to go fishin' I think I can do a pretty passable southern accent when I want to sink into one. Just, depending on the type, it doesn't make those of us sound very sophisticated.
Growing up, the one word that would grate on me spoken with a southern accent was "schoo." Schoo was where you went to get an education each day. And to hear it was like fingers on a chalkboard.
As far as sophistication goes. There was this guy who was majoring in physics from Valdosta. The way he spoke though, you would never know it.
I had a roommate once named "Red" Red was a short pdugy guy who at times would leave his door open and you could see him eating a plate full of BBQ wearing only underwear. Red spoke like Boomhauer from "King Of The Hill" A whole bunch of colliding syllables with "knowwhatimeanjimma?" at the end of them. I had no idea what he would say, so I simply nodded.
Inhaling microfibers and microplastics is a real problem with wearing masks, but hey, as long as you go along with the crazy, virtue signally will protect your lungs!!
Yep, for the first time, plastic fibers are turning up in lung tissue of vast numbers of the living. But no one cares, except for we conspiracy theorists.
Yes, all who wear a mask all day, every day, especially against a virus are mentally ill.
Change in Japan has always come from above or from without. Never from the lowly.
If they can't sell enough ads that they have to put public service messages on the train in a prime position that's really bad. I see that poster is sponsored by http://www.jametro.or.jp/ which is the "Japan Subway Association" i.e. the trade association that the company whose train you are on belongs to.
Yep.
The putting up of public service announcements to hide the fact that no one is advertising anymore is also not new, just more common now. And….again, this in Tokyo. No shortage of potential advertisers here, I would think.
Makes me wonder how much it costs to run ads on a train.
I never learned the costs but have heard some of what goes into the pricing. The top three are, of course location, location and location with lots of effort going into to determining where to get the most eyeballs on the ad. Then of course, how many ads. There are the occasional entire car or even train where everything aboard it, inside and out are part of the ad buy. THAT must cost a hell of a lot, I’d think.
Also, is it a local or express train, station of first departure and final destination also figures in. Time of day too. The actual price listing is probably fairly easy to find but all what goes into it is quite remarkable. If you are interested, I might be able to get an idea from one of my current students.
I am interested, but I would not want you or your student to dedicate much time to this purely to answer my idle curiosity.
What I learned about advertising in Japan was not what I expected. The revelations are so shocking to me that I do not know where to begin. Let’s start with general info and then more specific on my client’s use of advertising.
First, there is NO correlation to visibility in ads and increases in foot traffic. Posters on trains, billboards and the like, do not increase the number of customers who pass through the doors. He did not know how much it would cost for posters on the train but said it must be a huge amount as the price to advertise at a station is unbelievable high. 4 million yen for ads that cover both walls of an escalator and possibly the steps at one train station.
My student’s business rarely buys ads, relying on word of mouth. As there are always lines to get in, this obviously works for them.
Despite there being NO economic benefit to advertising on the trains, he would love to be able to do so. When I question him on this, he laughed and said that it would be great to be able to do so, to be able to your company advertising on a Tokyo train. Status symbol only, it seems.
He did agree that the disappearance of ads on trains is most likely due to the economy. There are other factors of course, but that is the biggest in his view.
On the contrary, he is the CEO of a food service company and this type of discussion is right on topic for him. Thanks for the suggested material. Cannot promise I’ll be able to get to it tomorrow, but I might.
Yeah I've seen it before too. But from your picture it looked that that was basically the only ad. That's not a positive sign
I have been noticing lately that there are increasingly fewer such ads and have been wanting to write a post on this fact but the trains had been crowded for me to get a good pic. This train did have other ads, but very few. The ones they did had up were right next to the doors.
This is true on busses too, but they have less ad space to begin with.
Got to love the PSA's. Meanwhile in Finland...
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/disorderly-refugees-turn-erfurt-commuter?r=q4neh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Makes sense that there are no ads as more people end up more deeply sunken into their phones or similar. Probably better to aim for that ESG cash or relations with its politicians.
http://www.jametro.or.jp/finance
Looking at their finances, if I'm reading it right, it looks like they lost around 13.5 million yen in membership fees back in 2020. Which moved their balance from -1 million yen to -9.8 million yen.
Finally in 2023 they gained back 6.3 million yen in member fees, but that only got them to -8 million yen in balance.
The economy is certainly good for mask-producing companies, and this ad will certainly help their bottom line by controlling those who choose not to think for themselves. I do believe that such companies are involved in these ads. I also believe that the media can instill sudden fear in our weak-minded friends by simply mentioning an increase in coof numbers. I refuse to say that C- word because it is just a rebranding of the common cold. Anyway, keep up the good work and keep ruining it for those that actually deserve it.
On that, I am not so sure. Have you seen any adverts for masks against covid? I haven’t. Why is that?
The media has certainly been able to scare most at a moments notice, sadly.
When and where are you available for coffee?
I was just thinking the same thing. I am suddenly free on Sundays. How about 7/21?
Weekends are a no go, sadly.
Understood. I will try to get a weekday evening available.
Okay, this looks like it is not going to be able to happen, at least not soon. I have time blocks available during weekdays but not in the evenings.
I could probably take an afternoon off. Do you have a time range?
With iPhones (and others) who has time to read an advertisement. I'm surprised there are any advertisements at all. Just public service messages telling you to put on your mask. Even cigarette advertising s telling you to wear a mask, to pull it down for inhaling, but breathe out through it. You know how fast that ruins a mask, oh, but we have another for you!
This is a good point. With everyone staring at their idiot phone screen, why spend money on posters.
Thank you, no need to spend money on posters, what per cent of the people you see on the subway are looking at a phone screen?
Damned near 100%. Those who aren’t, are sleeping.
I forgot about the people that sleep on the train, perhaps they don’t have WiFi and have to wait till they get home for the “local area network.”
Could be, but I think this is a minority. I do not have an idiot phone, but I do have iPads. I am online with my iPads on the train if I have room enough to use it and I am standing. If I am able to sit and decide to do so, I usually fall asleep. Japanese are sleep deprived. Most I know, think that 6 hours of sleep a night is the maximum needed, less is better.
Face it, you are iPhone deprived, not sleep deprived.
Check with the people on the train, the ones that go to sleep, they go to sleep because the train doesn’t offer them good reception or the don’t have it.
No blockbuster movie releases on the train, even though the iPhone has only a 6 inch screen!
"Good manners" is for suckahs! I prefer good integrity.
A week ago Wednesday I gave my anti mask speech to two classes classes of 1st year medical students at a med school that still requires masks and where I do not wear a mask. This Wednesday, most were still masked. As the next lesson is 7 weeks from now, after summer vacation, it is possible that they will replace me for not following the rules, of which masking is just one I am not onboard with.
The nursing students are the same. Was bared from campus for one nursing school and had to finish the school year, my last there online because I would not mask.
I think only 3 of my current 16 nursing students, different school, were unmasked on Wednesday.
At least one of my med students filed a formal complaint against me last year for not masking. The first complaint I know of in my 20 years at that school.
What kind of doctors and nurses are these going to be? The ones that survive multiple rounds of clots shots and other vaccines known to be dangerous and years of masking, that is.
This may be a reason for yen manipulation, but it is not the only reason. Despite all the fuss on “over tourism”, there are not more gaijin here (yet?) than planned on before the panic. It is just that after not allowing any in for around 4 years, they suddenly let just about anyone in. So, after we got used to the unnaturally empty and quite streets, we are suddenly flooded with normal numbers of tourists with a greater portion being from abroad and less domestic due to the economic realities.
On the other side of the ledger, we have more foreign families allowed in and from parts of the world whose immigrants in European counties have been wrecking havoc and these are being let in after efforts to destroy indigenous festivals and culture.