Life changed in March 2020. I was in Japan when the pandemic became serious and was afforded the opportunity to travel home to North Carolina because of the virus. After spending 7 months at home, I was able to travel back to Japan because of my job. From April 2020 until now (January 2021), I’ve noticed a lot of similarities and differences in how both countries have handled controlling the spread of COVID-19. Before I go into further detail, I would like to stress that my situation is a bit unique as I am affiliated with US Government while here in Japan, so my restrictions differ from other civilians who are not within the same affiliation. These observations are based on my personal experience and my intention is to not bash one country over another although there were flaws during this unprecedented time.

Masks

I’ve lived in Japan for almost 3 years, and generally if they are sick, they’ve always worn masks in public to avoid others getting sick. When the pandemic hit, it wasn’t completely out of the norm for me to see people wearing masks, but it was out of the norm to not be able to find masks to buy. Thankfully members within my community made cloth masks. Almost a year later, it’s fairly easy to find a mask in stores. While in the US, a mask mandate had not been in place when I initially returned home. It was weird going from seeing everyone within a store wearing masks, to seeing half of customers within a store wearing a mask. Due to the nature of the virus, I felt it safe to wear a mask and was astounded by people who were not wearing masks who would give me a somewhat dirty look. Thankfully mask mandates were put out. In North Carolina it is still mandatory to wear a mask when entering public spaces. I’m not sure if Japan had the same issue, but there were documented cases in the US where people refused to wear their mask. The difference in American vs Japanese culture (as far as I’ve grown to learn them) was interesting.

Travel Restrictions

When looking at the CDC list of countries that US citizens used to be able to travel to vs where we can travel to now because of the virus was astounding. Since US numbers are so high, no one really wants us in their country, and I completely understand why. In Japan, travel is restricted to a number of countries similarly to the US. As a frequent traveler, I’ve had to compensate and try to do more local traveling which was and has been rewarding.

Social Distancing in Public Spaces

In both America and in Japan, public spaces have markers on the floor to separate people at least 6 ft apart. Does that always mean that people head to them? Not always. I’ve had instances in both countries where I had to give someone behind a look because they were way too close. I try to be polite about it and thank goodness for the mask because my facial expressions can be a bit aggressive. 

Lockdown Restrictions/Quarantine

I’m pretty sure that just about every country went into some type of lockdown/quarantine at some point. Again, I’m not sure how Japanese locals handled the news of having to restrict travel to other places for a certain amount of time. I do know that for Americans, it was pretty hard even for myself while home. Having to cancel or change travel plans because of this pandemic was devastating. Before numbers began to rise, it was shocking to see people continuing to gather in large groups without regard to social distancing or wearing masks. The mindset of someone telling you to stay at home and only go out for essentials isn’t what a lot of people wanted to hear. I’m not sure what the exact solution would be other than everyone complying for a period of time until things can settle. 

I honestly did not have a true quarantine until I returned to Japan after leaving the US in November 2020. I’ll blog about that experience later, but I literally could not leave my house for 14 days to reduce the risk of spreading the virus in the event that I had it. It was a very humbling experience and it made me appreciate being able to leave my house when I want. 

As we get used to our new way of life, it’ll be interesting to see where we are by December 2021. Will we still have mask mandates? Will there still be travel restrictions? Will COVID-19 numbers go down? Please be sure to follow any COVID-19 precautions regardless of where you are in the world. We all want things to go back to normal and some things have to change in order to do so.