Grin and bare it: as mask mandates end Japan turns to tutors to relearn how to smile

After three years of concealing their mouths behind masks, some Japanese people are turning to specialist smile tutors to relearn the art of breaking into a beaming grin without looking awkward.

Since lifting the official advice to wear masks to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, many people have admitted to struggling to adjust to life without face coverings, with some confessing they have forgotten how to smile.

“With mask wearing having become the norm, people have had fewer opportunities to smile, and more and more people have developed a complex about it,” Keiko Kawano, a coach with the “smile education” company Egaoiku told the Asahi Shimbun.

“Moving and relaxing the facial muscles is the key to making a good smile. I want people to spend time consciously smiling for their physical and mental wellbeing.”

Participants used handheld mirrors to check their progress, with some adjusting their expressions until they were satisfied they had rediscovered their natural, pre-mask grin.

Egaoiku saw the number of applicants rise by 4.5 times after media first reported the impending Covid-19 reclassification in February. A month later, the government said face coverings should be an individual choice, and downgraded the virus’s severity classification in May.

One of the participants, 79-year-old Akiko Takizawa, said she was excited about going back to her pre-mask life, with a little help from her smile coach.

“I didn’t have opportunities to see people during the coronavirus crisis and didn’t smile in public,” she told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper. “This has reminded me of how important smiling is.”

The classes, which are particularly popular among women, typically begin with stretches to relieve facial tension before participants raise their handheld mirrors to eye level and flex parts of their face in line with Kawano’s instructions.

“A smile is only a smile if it’s conveyed,” she told her students at a recent session in Yokohama, according to the Japan Times. “Even if you’re thinking about smiling or that you’re happy, if you have no expression, it won’t reach your audience.”

Kawano, a familiar face on TV and social media, has coached more than 4,000 people in the art of smiling over the past six years, the newspaper said, as well as helping hundreds of others become certified “smile specialists”. She now oversees 20 trainers who run classes all over Japan.

Early indications are that their services will be in demand in Japan, where mask-wearing was widespread throughout the pandemic. Just before official advice on mask wearing was eased in mid-March, one in four people said they would continue to cover up in all social settings.

An online survey by Laibo, a research group specialising in careers, found that 27.8% of company employees in their 20s to 50s said they would continue to wear masks “unconditionally”, with just over two-thirds saying they would decide on whether or not to cover up depending on the situation. Only 5.5% said they were happy to go mask-free all the time.