It happens in Japanese cities every winter and spring — the mask attack.
These white strips of cloth obscuring your fellow commuters' faces have long been a common way to ward off influenza and hay fever, but their popularity is soaring higher than ever this winter because of frequent reports about an outbreak of a new type of flu.
"The media have been repeatedly giving a warning of a new type of influenza outbreak, so people may have thought they should store some masks and use a mask more often," said Yukihiro Hosoe, manager of the advertising and marketing strategy department at Kowa Co., Japan's leading health care product company.